Sixty percent of those polled said the top priority for the government when it comes to immigration should be “developing a plan to allow those in the U.S. illegally who have jobs to become legal residents.” Poll: Majority want a path toward citizenship for undocumented immigrants

Six out of 10 Americans reached for a new poll released Friday by CNN said U.S. immigration policy should be geared towards aiding those who are employed and inside the country illegally with obtaining legal status, not deporting them as President Donald Trump has proposed.

Sixty percent of those polled said the top priority for the government when it comes to immigration should be “developing a plan to allow those in the U.S. illegally who have jobs to become legal residents.” Twenty-six percent said the U.S. should focus on a plan to stop more undocumented immigrants from crossing the border and 13 percent said the government’s priority should be deporting those who are already here.


Asked what should be done with undocumented immigrants who speak English, have jobs, are willing to pay back taxes and have been in the U.S. “for a number of years,” 90 percent of respondents said they would support legislation that allowed them to remain in the country and offered a path to U.S. citizenship. Support for such a policy had broad bipartisan support, backed by 96 percent of Democrats, 87 percent of Republicans and 89 percent of independents.

While the CNN poll showed broad and increasing support for a pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants, Trump has already moved early in his presidency to keep the hardline promises he made on immigration policy during the campaign. He has signed executive orders stepping up immigration enforcement and allocated additional money in a budget blueprint released Thursday to agencies that deal most with undocumented immigrants.

Trump has also threatened to pull federal funding from so-called “sanctuary cities” that protect undocumented immigrants and has begun the process of building his long-promised wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.

The CNN/ORC poll was conducted from March 1-4, reaching 1,025 Americans nationwide via both landlines and cell phones. The margin of error for the full sample size was plus-or-minus 3 points and the margin of error for results separated out by party affiliation was plus-or-minus 6 points.