With the Legal Workforce Act, a bill forcing companies to check the immigration status of their employees, working its way through Congress, voters nationwide continue to believe overwhelmingly that when it comes to immigration legislation the focus should be on the border.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 65% of Likely U.S. Voters say it is more important to gain control of the border than to legalize the status of those already living illegally in the United States. Twenty-eight percent (28%) feel legalizing the status of illegal immigrants is more important. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Fifty-seven percent (57%) favor a welcoming immigration policy that is designed to keep out only national security threats, criminals and those who come here to live off our welfare system. Twenty-eight percent (28%) disagree with this kind of immigration policy, while 14% are undecided.

Findings for both questions are consistent with surveys dating back to 2006.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on September 12-13, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.