Poll: Americans Support Legal Status for Those Who Came to US Illegally as Children
Comment by V. Lance Tarrance, TLC Chief Strategist and Pollster
On June 18th, the Supreme Court granted permanent legal status to immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children.
This particular political and humanitarian issue, which has been a political football between the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch, has now been decided by the Supreme Court in favor of DACA but by a close 5 to 4 decision.
However, in a recent PEW study conducted a few days before the Supreme Court decision, the public was in favor of a DACA law by 74%, or 3 out of every 4 Americans. About 90% of Hispanics also favored granting legal status to immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children.
Estimates are that this favorable Supreme Court decision will affect about 650,000 immigrants with protection from deportation. There could be a second step of permanent legal status for all law-abiding undocumented illegals on the football playing fields of the near future.
From PEW Research’s article:
About three-quarters of U.S. adults say they favor granting permanent legal status to immigrants who came illegally to the United States when they were children, with the strongest support coming from Democrats and Hispanics, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 4-10, 2020.
As with other immigration issues, some of the sharpest differences in these views are between Democrats and Republicans. While 91% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents favor granting legal status to immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children, about half of Republicans and Republican leaners (54%) say the same.
Support also varies by race and ethnicity. About nine-in-ten Hispanics (88%) say they favor granting legal status to immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children, with similar shares of U.S.-born and immigrant Hispanics saying so. Smaller majorities of black (82%), Asian American (72%) and white (69%) adults say the same.
DACA enrollees, a group sometimes called “Dreamers,” are dispersed across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, but just six states account for more than half of the total: California (184,880), Texas (107,020), Illinois (34,150), New York (28,560), Florida (25,090) and North Carolina (24,230).
Map by PEW Research Center