By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer

Most Mexican illegal immigrants want to remain in the United States indefinitely, but a majority would be willing to return to Mexico within five years under a temporary guest worker program being considered by the Bush administration, according to a survey released yesterday.

The survey by the Pew Hispanic Center showed that nearly three-quarters of undocumented workers would accept a temporary worker status that required them to return to Mexico. That included 68 percent who said they wanted to live in the United States "as long as I can" or for "the rest of my life."

The survey of nearly 5,000 Mexican nationals was called the first of its kind by Roberto Suro, the center's director. It was conducted at Mexican consulates in Los Angeles; New York; Chicago; Atlanta; Dallas; Fresno, Calif.; and Raleigh, N.C., over six months as immigrants applied for a Mexican identity document.

The survey comes about a year after the Bush administration proposed a temporary worker program to match willing foreign workers with U.S. employers for jobs that no Americans can be found to fill. Bush mentioned the program in his State of the Union address last year, and the White House has encouraged Republicans in Congress to draft legislation supporting temporary-worker status.

Researchers surveyed immigrants at the consulates in cooperation with the Mexican government, which supports the creation of a temporary worker status. About 40 percent of respondents came to the United States within the past five years. Most were young men, and they worked predominantly at construction sites, in hotels and in the manufacturing industry.

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, said the survey "shows exactly what we've been telling the administration, that the vast majority of illegal aliens . . . have no intention of returning to their countries of origin."

Tancredo supports efforts to provide temporary worker status, but only after the borders are made less porous and stronger laws are passed to punish people who employ workers illegally.

Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, opposes allowing undocumented immigrants to work legally, even on a temporary basis. He dismissed the survey's findings, saying that illegal Mexican immigrants would remain in the United States regardless of their status.

Stein said he doubted that the government would remove workers when their temporary status expired. "One thing we know for sure is that under the current state of affairs, no one would ever be forced to go home," he said. "That's a hell of a thing to build a policy on."

Los Angeles immigration lawyer Alan R. Diamante agreed: "Let's be real. . . . My clients don't want to leave after five years. It's great for people who want to come from Mexico to the United States for a few years. But there would be a lot of resistance from people already living in the United States. Most people want an opportunity for permanent residency."

More than 5 million Mexican nationals live illegally in the United States and comprise about 57 percent of all illegal immigrants, said Pew demographer Jeffrey S. Passel, whose estimates are based largely on Census Bureau information.

In the Pew survey, young and newly arrived immigrants were more likely to say they would return to Mexico, while older immigrants with deeper roots in the United States said they planned to stay indefinitely. Women were more likely than men to say they wanted to remain in the country because they were joining husbands or were caring for children.

"Being here changes the way people think about their migration," Suro said.

© 2005