Poll: 70 percent of Americans support a path to citizenship

A large majority of Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, according to a new NewsNation poll.

The poll found that 70 percent of respondents support a pathway to citizenship, while 30 percent oppose it. Among women, support was slightly higher at 72 percent.

Most recent immigration reform initiatives have centered around granting legal avenues for undocumented immigrants to get legal status.

The last time a broad legalization measure became law was in 1986, although some smaller bills have passed since.

House Democrats last year included a provision that would grant around 7 million undocumented immigrants legal status — but in most cases not a pathway to citizenship — in the Build Back Better bill that was supposed to be President Biden’s signature legislation.

And the House passed a bipartisan measure that would provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented farmworkers.

But neither path has a realistic path to Senate approval, and both have been sidelined with leaders focusing on other issues.

Still, according to the NewsNation poll, 87 percent of Americans think immigration is an important political issue.

Nearly half say it is a very important political issue, and only two percent think immigration is not at all important.

While the poll shows most Americans agree undocumented immigrants should have a path to citizenship and that immigration matters, divisions exist on most other immigration questions.

Slightly more than 37 percent of respondents said immigration should decrease, nearly 25 percent said it should increase and another 37 percent said immigration should stay the same.

Similarly, 20 percent of respondents said they want the government to decrease border security spending focused on immigration, while 48 percent said spending should increase and 31 percent said it should remain the same. 

Americans are split on the effectiveness of a border wall to contain irregular migration, with 51 percent of respondents saying it would be effective and 49 percent saying it would not. 

The poll was conducted by Decision Desk HQ at the request of NewsNation among 1,037 U.S. adults, with a margin of error of around 3 percent on most questions.

NewsNation and The Hill are both part of Nexstar Media Group.