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Arizona's Hispanic voters overwhelmingly oppose the law, which takes effect this summer and authorizes state police to arrest anyone reasonably suspected of being an illegal immigrant.
But Hispanics are increasingly frustrated by federal inaction on comprehensive immigration reform and are moving swiftly away from candidates who support the Arizona law, the polls said.
The polls were conducted by two research and opinion firms — Hispanic Decisions and Grove Insight — for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), with 2.2 million members in the U.S., Canada.
"This polling data confirms what we have known for a long time," SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina said. "American voters, Hispanic and non-Hispanic alike, are angry and increasingly fed up with Congress continued failure to fix our broken immigration system. In the absence of a practical fix by Congress, voters will grasp at straws for anything they believe delivers action."
But, he said, there is "clearly a political cost among Hispanic voters," adding that their widespread opposition to the new law, known as SB 1070, "shows that frivolous, reactionary state laws just serve to galvanize Hispanic voters to move away from candidates who push draconian, enforcement-only legislation."
The Hispanic Decisions poll of 402 voters in Arizona and the Grove Insight poll of 500 base voters in Arizona tested overall views and political implications of the passage of the new law, as well as voters' views on immigration reform.
Key findings included that 81 percent of Arizona's Hispanic voters oppose SB 1070. Since the bills passage, the polls found, immigration reform has become the leading issue among Hispanic voters, shooting up by 16 percentage points and moving ahead of the economy and health care as the leading issue among Hispanic voters.
"The data shows very clearly Hispanic voters in Arizona, from first-generation immigrants to fourth-generation families, are very much opposed to SB 1070 and national immigration reform is now their single most important issue," said Matt A. Barreto, a pollster with Hispanic Decisions and and associate professor of political science at the University of Washington.
"Overwhelmingly, Hispanic voters fully expect the federal government to take up national immigration reform during 2010 to fix this problem in Arizona," he said.
The Grove Insight poll of Arizona base voters showed similar frustration over congressional inaction.
While 60 percent of Arizona voters expressed support for the new law, 73 percent also supported federal reform that included both enforcement and a path to citizenship.
That poll concluded that asking about support for SB 1070 without also asking about comprehensive immigration reform failed to reveal voters underlying motivations.
It said a majority of Americans across regions and party lines believe a federal overhaul of a broken immigration system that includes a path to legalization is the only way to end illegal immigration.
"SB 1070 looks popular in polls because it provides a way to express frustration with federal inaction on fixing immigration," said Clarissa Martinez de Castro, NCLR's director of immigration and national campaigns.
"But there is a political price to pay because Hispanic voters know this law will be ineffective and lead to racial profiling, and they will remember which politicians supported it and which did nothing to stop it," he said.
Ben Patinkin, a senior analyst at Grove Insight, said Arizonans are "frustrated with the current immigration situation and are particularly incensed with the federal governments failure to solve the problem." He said while many "grasp at SB 1070 as a potential solution," the polling data found they would much prefer comprehensive reform at the national level.
Ms. Martinez de Castro said action to deliver real solutions on immigration is "essential" for Democrats if they want to nurture the support they have gained from Hispanic voters.
