San Jose, Calif. ? Legal immigrants in the United States view undocumented immigrants favorably and support legislation that would give them a path to citizenship, according to a national, multilingual poll released Tuesday.

These findings, pollster Sergio Bendixen said, contradict an oft-quoted belief that legal immigrants “harbor animosity toward undocumented immigrants for cutting in” on a long, backlogged line toward legalization.

“This polls shows the opposite,” he said. “That’s an interesting insight.”

Commissioned by the New America Media, a national organization of ethnic media, the poll was conducted by telephone during a four-week period through last week. It was co-sponsored by the liberal Washington, D.C., think-tank Center for American Progress and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a national civil rights group.

“So much of the immigration debate is about illegal immigrants and we so quickly forget a whole nation of legal immigrants. Their voice is lost in the debate,” said Dan Restrepo a senior policy adviser for the Center for American Progress. “That’s the most valuable thing about this.”

Sandy Close, executive director of the New America Media, said it was “important to bring the collective voice of immigrants who are the target of the political debate” as Congress begins deliberations this week on an immigration reform bill.

Conducted in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, Hindi and Haitian Creole, the poll asked legal immigrants if they believe that illegal immigrants take away jobs from citizens and legal immigrants.

An overwhelming majority, 81 percent, said illegal immigrants take jobs that no one else wants to do. Only 11 percent said illegal immigrants take jobs from legal residents. Asked how they view the role of illegal immigrants in the U.S. economy, 73 percent said they help the economy by providing low-cost labor. Seventeen percent said illegal immigrants hurt the economy by driving down wages.

Bendixen said he was surprised by the unity of opinion across ethnic groups because he had expected great differences among Latinos, Asians and Europeans.

A large majority, 67 percent, agreed that anti-immigrant sentiment is growing in the United States. “What this told me is the alarm about the rhetoric and tone and substance of the debate,” Close said. “They feared anti-immigrant sentiment was on the rise.”