Washington, DC – New immigration polling from Gallup, the latest installment in their annual poll, finds that Americans overwhelmingly recognize that immigrants and immigration are still good things for the country.
The 2024 installment of the Gallup poll does show real concerns about a broken immigration system and related chaos and disorder at our border, as well as a troubling uptick in support for several hardline policies like deportation and slashing overall immigration numbers, especially among Republican respondents. This is largely the focus of Gallup’s accompanying poll summary. Yet taken in the larger context and alongside other poll findings, there are multiple data points that show the American public remains consistent and supportive of a balanced, orderly, and pro-immigrant set of policies. Most notably: when offered an array of immigration policy options to choose between, support for a process for long-settled immigrants to become U.S. citizens remains at the top of the list of preferred policies and maintains an enduring and overwhelming majority of respondents. This support for citizenship – including and especially for Dreamers (81%) – is much higher than the support for deportation (47%).
Similarly, by a 2:1 margin (64-32%), Americans think immigration is a “good thing” for America instead of a “bad thing” – this despite the barrage of negative attention and misinformation advanced over the past year.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“This is key: despite all the millions spent on ads and vitriol on immigration, Americans still support citizenship and immigration. The Gallup poll is consistent with all the other polling we have seen, for example, 81% of Americans want Dreamers to have a path to citizenship. To be clear, 100% of Republicans who will be speaking at the RNC next week in Milwaukee want to deport Dreamers and that puts them out of step with the American people.
The poll is instructive to both parties: Democrats MUST lean in and define themselves on the immigration issue. And Republicans are wrong in their cruel, dangerous, and destructive plans for America. Trump and Stephen Miller’s dark vision would rip apart every community that has absorbed long-established immigrants and who work every day to keep America’s economy strong. That is not where the American people are.”
Among the key findings in the 2024 Gallup poll:
- An overwhelming 81% of Americans support Dreamers’ citizenship: This includes 64% of Republican respondents, 82% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats who support “Allowing immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time.”
- Enduring and strong support for a broader path to citizenship – 70% of Americans support: This includes 46% of Republican respondents, 72% of Independents and 87% of Democrats who support, “Allowing immigrants living in the U.S. illegally the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time.”
- By a 64-32% margin, Americans still think immigration is a “good thing” rather than a “bad thing” for the country. This number remains strong (was 68-27% in 2023 and 70-24% in 2022). 86% of Democratic respondents, 66% of Independents, and 39% of Republicans stated that immigration was a “good thing” in the 2024 survey.
2024 Gallup Poll Trendline – Immigration as Good Thing vs. Bad Thing for Nation
- Making sense of rising concerns and support for restrictive policies: By a narrow 51-47% margin, Americans are opposed to mass deportation, described as, “Deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home country.” This rising support for deportation (up ten percentage points over past five years), along with assorted other upticks in support for restrictive policies, is troubling but makes sense in the context of the following:
- Concern over a broken immigration system and related chaos – including and especially over new migrant and asylum seeker arrivals – is real, undoubtedly fueled in part by relentless demonization and disinformation by immigration opponents and right wing media, along with real concerns and attention in many parts of the nation about the strain of welcoming these new arrivals.
- The American public is hungry for solutions and to fix our broken immigration system, recognizing rightly that immigration within a controlled and orderly system is good for America, our economy, and our future.
- Yet instead of just enforcement-only approaches, a strong majority of the public supports a balanced approach that both maintains an orderly border and creates a process toward legalizing immigrants and maintaining our competitive advantage as a nation that is stronger through immigration.
- Americans’ desire for action instead of the status quo on immigration also results in some contradictory findings, including some respondents who appear to have both supported a pathway to citizenship and deportation policies (and when pitted against each other, citizenship support is stronger, deeper, and consistently more popular than deportation).
