Big majorities of Americans want a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and oppose deporting all undocumented immigrants—in sharp contrast to Donald Trump.
A new Gallup poll finds a whopping 81 percent of people favor offering undocumented immigrants “the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time,” while 61 percent oppose mass deportation. Both of those numbers have dropped slightly since 2016, but Trump remains very much in the minority.
Another key immigration number has gone the opposite direction in that time. A record high 30 percent of Americans want to increase immigration levels, just one point behind the number wanting to decrease immigration levels. What’s striking about this is that “Before Trump's election, the percentage preferring a decrease in immigration averaged 31 points higher than the percentage wanting an increase.” A few points up or down on a given question is expected over time. That kind of change has a reason, and it’s hard not to conclude that the reason here is Trump.