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The American People, Including Republican Voters, Strongly Support Immigration Reform

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When Will Boehner and His Caucus Allow this Majority View to be Expressed in the House?

As a series of series of newpolls and analysis highlight, support for passing a bill with citizenship continues to grow and diversify:

  • An Overwhelming Majority of the American Public Supports Immigration Reform with Citizenship: A Gallup poll released last week shows that 88% of all Americans support a path to citizenship as part of immigration reform, including 87% of whites, 83% of conservatives and 83% of conservative whites.  In fact, Gallup found this was the most popular component of immigration reform, winning out over border security, employment verification and high-skilled worker visas. And a new Gallup poll released today shows that adults, by a margin of 48% – 36%, say their views on immigration more closely align with the Democratic Party’s immigration policies than those of the Republican Party.
  • So Do 70% of GOP Primary Voters: New polling of Republican primary voters, released by Americans for a Conservative Direction and conducted by Basswood Research, finds, per Huffington Post, “Most of the voters surveyed in this poll — 70 percent — said they are open to a bill that bolsters border security resources, requires employers to check on potential hires’ legal status and allows undocumented immigrants eventually to gain citizenship. If border security is coupled with legalization, 65 percent of Republican voters said they would support a path to citizenship, according to the poll.”
  • Voters in Key Republican Districts Also Support Reform with Citizenship: New Public Policy Polling (PPP) polling in seven swing congressional districts shows broad popular support for immigration reform with a path to citizenship, even among Republican and Independent voters. According to the poll, an average of 65% of voters in seven key congressional swing districts, and an average of 68% of likely voters in 29 states support immigration with citizenship.
  • Amongst Latino Voters, Citizenship Remains Key:  As a June Latino Decisions poll shows, 81% of Latino voters support immigration reform that combines border security with a pathway to citizenship, including 66% of Latino Republicans.
  • Minority Voters Generally are Highly Supportive of Reform with Citizenship:  A Lake Research poll sponsored by the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights showed that 66% of African-American voters support immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship. And an Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) poll from April showed that 66% of Asian-American voters are also strongly in favor of immigration reform that includes citizenship.
  • On the Issue of Legal Status vs. Citizenship, Citizenship Wins:  As a new Quinnipiac poll shows, per a recap from Greg Sargent of the Washington Post, “A majority, 54 percent, support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, while only 12 percent support allowing them to stay in the U.S. without citizenship (another 28 percent support deportation). In other words, the sub-citizenship status option — the position some Republicans are adopting in order to appear willing to solve the immigration problem while not embracing citizenship — has virtually no public support at all. Indeed, this position is only supported by 13 percent of Republicans, while the rest of them are split between citizenship and deportation. This position pleases no one.”  Amongst Latino voters, citizenship is key. As an April Latino Decisions poll shows, 87% of Latinos would become citizens if an immigration bill is signed into law, while only 13% said “don’t know/unsure.”

According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

It’s time to face facts.  The American people, including strong majorities of Republican voters, want reform with a path to citizenship.  A strong bipartisan majority in the Senate recently voted for reform with a path to citizenship.  A bipartisan majority for reform with a path to citizenship exists today in the House of Representatives.  The only thing standing between this majority view and the realization of reform is the House Republican leadership.  Instead of hiding behind an undemocratic procedural excuse, House Republicans should allow this majority view to express itself by working towards a vote on a comprehensive solution.