A new poll out Sunday found that, much like Congress, the American public is divided on whether border security must be achieved before the process of legalization for immigrants can move forward.
Forty-three percent of Americans believe that people in the U.S. illegally should only be allowed to seek legal status after effective border control is established, while 49 percent say the process of legalization can occur while border security improvements are being made, according to a national poll by the Pew Research Center and USA TODAY.
Like Congress–many Republican politicians want to stall the immigration reform legislation until a provision laying out stronger border security is established–those polled seem to be divided along party lines. Sixty percent of Democrats say legalization for immigrants can happen simultaneously with border control improvements, while a majority of Republicans–56 percent–say the borders must be controlled first. Within the Republican party, Tea Partiers favor a “border security first” approach by more than two-to-one, 67-27 percent.
The survey also found that a large majority of the public–77 percent–believe that deporting all undocumented immigrants would be unrealistic and 75 percent agree that it would be “better for the economy for undocumented immigrants to gain legal status and become legal workers.”
In all, 71 percent say that, if certain requirements are met, there should be a way for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. to stay legally. The top requirement: learning English, with 76 percent of Americans being in favor of requiring undocumented immigrants to show they know English before gaining legal status.
The poll surveyed 1,512 adults between June 12-16 and has a margin of error of 2.9 percent.
