Voters oppose more strongly than ever granting automatic U.S. citizenship to a child born to an illegal immigrant in this country.

Now, nearly two-out-of-three Likely U.S. Voters (65%) say if a woman enters the United States as an illegal alien and gives birth to a child here, that child should not automatically become a U.S. citizen. That’s up from 58% in August 2010. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 29% disagree and think a child born to an illegal immigrant should automatically be granted citizenship, down from 34% last year. (To see survey question wording, click here.)



Significantly, however, a plurality (46%) of those in the Political Class think a child born here to an illegal immigrant should automatically become a U.S. citizen, while 73% of Mainstream voters oppose such a move.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of liberals support automatic citizenship, while 83% of conservatives and 71% of moderates are opposed.

Eighty-four percent (84%) of all voters agree that before anyone receives local, state or federal government services, they should be required to prove they are legally allowed to be in the United States. Only 11% oppose such a requirement. This is virtually unchanged from findings in August.

But most voters (57%) also remain at least somewhat concerned that efforts to identify and deport illegal immigrants will end up violating the civil rights of some U.S. citizens, with 25% who are Very Concerned. Forty-one percent (41%) don’t share that concern, including 11% who are Not At All Concerned about it. This is in line with findings since May of last year.

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The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on November 13-14, 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.