By a margin of 60 percent to 34 percent, registered Hispanic voters said they supported granting legal status to illegal immigrants “only when the 90% goal is reached.” Hispanic adults backed the proposal by a nearly identical margin — 60 percent to 32 percent.

The proposal offered in the poll is even more hawkish than the one put forward by Senator John Cornyn (R., Texas), who offered an amendment to the Gang of Eight immigration bill that would have required a 90 percent border-apprehension rate before illegal immigrants, having already been granted legal status under the legislation, could apply for citizenship.

Cornyn’s amendment, however, was rejected by the Gang and its supporters in favor of the “border surge” amendment from Senators Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) and John Hoeven (R., N.D.), which establishes a 90 percent apprehension rate as a guideline that has no bearing on the granting of legal status or citizenship. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that even with the Corker-Hoeven amendment, the Gang of Eight bill would only reduce future illegal immigration by 33 percent to 50 percent.