Americans want new immigration legislation

A new survey has revealed that the majority of Americans want Congress to pass the currently being discussed immigration bill.

Washington DC

Washington DC

According to the United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll, some 50 per cent of American citizens would like to see the House of Representatives either pass the Senate’s immigration bill in its current guise, or pass a version that includes even tougher border-control measures.

The poll also found that only one in five voters said they would prefer the House to pass no immigration legislation at all, and only 13 percent said they want the House to strip the path to citizenship – the main sticking point for the House – from the Senate’s bill.

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There were some slight partisan differences found by the poll. For example, while 37 per cent of Democrats voters said they wanted the House to simply pass the Senate bill as it currently stands, just 18 per cent of Republican voters agreed with this. Instead, the majority of Republicans (42 per cent) indicated they would like the House to pass a version of the Senate legislation but with firmer border-security provisions.

Interestingly, though, a higher percentage of Democrats (22 per cent) than Republicans (16 per cent) felt that no new immigration legislation should be passed.

Support for passing the Senate legislation word for word was strongest among young Americans, (between 18 to 29 years old), with 36 per cent of this age group backing this. Only 17 per cent of young people said they did not want any immigration measure to pass, compared to 20 per cent of over 50s.