But a small percentage of people are reserving their judgment, or at least their willingness to cheer or pound their fists, until they see how enforcement of the new law plays out. They are not inclined to show up at protests or argue at work. Although they may have opinions, they don't spend a lot of time reading or watching news reports about reaction to Senate Bill 1070, which was signed into law by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer last week.

In a sense, these moderate-minded people, if they're not indifferent, represent the conflicted feelings of a nation that for decades has failed to reach agreement on how to deal with illegal immigration.

A new Rasmussen poll released Wednesday indicates that although 64 percent of Arizonans favor the new immigration law and 30 percent are opposed, 6 percent are unsure how they feel. The poll of 500 likely Arizona voters was conducted earlier this week and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 ½ percentage points.

Sam Burkhardt, 70, of Phoenix, counts himself as one of those with mixed feelings. He is neither stridently in favor of nor opposed to the nation's toughest immigration law, which requires police to inquire about legal status if they reasonably suspect a person is in the country illegally.

"I think something has to be done, but I'm not sure this is the something," said Burkhardt, who is a retired moving-company manager. "I do have concerns about how the Hispanic community is going to be treated."

Burkhardt, who has lived in Arizona for 40 years, avoids bringing up and discussing the topic with people, not wanting to provoke emotional outbursts.

"If they bring it up, I will," he said. "I'm not the one who is going to initiate the conversation."

Some political scientists said they are not surprised by the poll numbers indicating only a small percentage undecided about the new immigration law.

Immigration is not a highly technical issue, so it's easy for people to formulate opinions, said Kenneth Fernandez, a political-science professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Generally, most average voters believe the U.S. should be guarding and controlling its borders and enforcing its laws, he said. But those same people don't want the effort to go overboard, causing police officers to use racial profiling to target suspects.

He predicts that some people's opinions will change over time as a clearer picture of the law's impact emerges, although it's difficult to tell what the prevailing public opinion ultimately will be. Opinions on the Iraq war shifted to the negative as time went on, affected by casualties and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction there.

Shailesh Ghimire, 35, of Gilbert, has no problem with local police checking a person's immigration status, but he wants to see if officers abide by training in using proper procedures.

A citizen of Nepal, he has had a green card for the past seven years and carries it wherever he goes. He said he wouldn't be offended if he were asked for proof of legal residency. "I have nothing to hide," he said.

At the same time, Ghimire, an Internet-marketing specialist and frequent traveler, has seen how international-airline passengers are regarded with undue suspicion when they aren't White.

"I can see both sides (of the immigration issue)," he said.

His biggest concern, however, is that the law will fail to address what he sees as a main contributor to illegal immigration: employers hiring illegal immigrants.

Since 2008, Arizona has had an employer-sanctions law that makes it illegal to knowingly hire undocumented workers. The new immigration law makes a few clarifications to the 2008 law but no major changes.

Ghimire said Arizona needs even tougher, zero-tolerance enforcement against employers hiring illegal immigrants if the state wants to discourage people from staying in the U.S.

Some Arizona residents are keeping their cool about the law because they're not sure it will ever be put into effect. Civil-rights groups are filing lawsuits to try to block the law.

"It's so new," said Alexander Falkenstein, a 22-year-old finance major at Arizona State University. "No one understands the language or how it will be implemented. I'm waiting to see."

Falkenstein disagrees with giving police extra power to question people. "(But) I'm not going to throw my arms up in the air because I don't even know if (the law) is going to go through."

Some Arizona residents believe that, despite criticism of the law, not much will change.
Deborah Reed, 40, of Phoenix, thinks the law will lead to occasional, but not widespread, incidents of racial profiling and will not cause vast numbers of illegal immigrants to be deported. "I think life will continue as it always does," she said.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/04/30/20100430arizona-immigration-law-moderates.html#ixzz0mZHrEH8b