Three-quarters of the public, including more than half of Republicans, support congressional action to give legal status to immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children, according to a new poll.
Pew Research Center found that 74% of respondents would favor Congress passing a law that grants them permanent legal status, which allows recipients to apply to become citizens.
Ninety-one percent of Democrats and 54% of Republicans agreed on providing the protections for immigrant children. Forty-three percent of Republicans did not back the idea, compared to 8% of Democrats, the June 4-10 survey found. While the majority of Trump’s party supports the measure, he does not.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration could not dismantle Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as minors and who meet certain criteria from deportation. Trump has amended or revoked several immigration policies since taking office, and his administration announced in 2017 that he would rescind DACA on the basis that it was illegally created by his predecessor.
DACA recipients must have a clean criminal record and have been 16 years old or younger when they arrived in the U.S. They must apply to renew their protected status every two years, and those approved by the Department of Homeland Security receive a permit to work. Mexican citizens make up 96% of DACA recipients, federal data show.
Respondents also overwhelmingly support providing a way for illegal immigrants, including those who overstayed visas or crossed the border without permission as adults, to stay in the U.S. if certain requirements are met. Seventy-five percent of all respondents support this, including 57% of Republicans and 89% of Democrats.
As of late 2019, 650,000 immigrants were enrolled in the DACA program. All told, 800,000 people have been approved for it since Obama rolled it out in 2012.
Pew’s American Trends Panel conducted the poll among 9,654 people and had a margin of error of 1.6 percentage points.
