A naturalization ceremony Photo: Grand Canyon National Park/Wikimedia Commons
With immigrants and immigration system dominating the political discourse, a new survey says more Americans support legal immigration into the United States than a decade ago but fewer than half of the citizens know that most immigrants are in the United States legally.
A Pew Research Center’s latest survey also reveals that 69 % of Americans feel somewhat or very sympathetic towards people living illegally in the United States.
The findings come as a majority of Democrats and pro-immigration activists call for ending practices like separation of families entering the U.S. illegally. The pro-immigration and human rights activists have also expressed anguish at the Supreme Court’s ruling that has upheld President Trump’s travel ban against several conflict-hit countries including Muslim-majority countries.
As for Americans’ views on legal immigration into the country, the share of people favoring it has expanded significantly during the last decade.
A Pew study last year found that the United States will need to have inflow of hardworking and skill workforce at current levels for at least three decades to come in order to sustain high economic growth.
The latest Pews Research survey, conducted June 5-12 among 2,002 adults, finds that 38% say legal immigration into the United States should be kept at its present level, while 32% say it should be increased and 24% say it should be decreased.
The share of Americans who feel sympathetic toward immigrants living illegally in the United States has also increased with seven-in-ten (69%) saying they are “very or somewhat sympathetic” toward immigrants who are in the United States illegally.
According to the Pew findings that view has changed little since 2014, when a surge of unaccompanied children from Central America attempted to enter the U.S. at the border.
An huge majority of Democrats (86%) say they are sympathetic toward immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, compared with about half of Republicans (48%). .
Since 2001, Americans’ views have shifted gradually after hitting a low ebb in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The share of Americans who favor increased legal immigration into the U.S. has risen 22 percentage points (from 10% to 32%), while the share who support a decrease has declined 29 points (from 53% to 24%), the Pew said on its website.
Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents the share of those who say legal immigration into the U.S. should be increased has doubled since 2006, up from 20% to 40% in 2018.
Among Republicans views have shifted modestly.
The Pew says the share of Republicans and Republican-leaning citizens who say legal immigration should be decreased has fallen 10 percentage points since 2006, from 43% to 33%. Still, about twice as many Republicans (33%) as Democrats (16%) support cutting legal immigration into the United States, the research organization says.
