WASHINGTON, DC — A new national poll conducted by Global Strategy Group, Garin-Hart-Yang and LD, Insights in partnership with FWD.us and America’s Voice found an electorate eager for Congressional action on immigration and very high levels of support for the major citizenship proposals currently being considered by Congress. The popularity of these proposals show the potential for political gain, but also potential backlash from voters if no action is taken to fix what voters see as a broken immigration system.

The survey found the DREAM Act to have 72% support, citizenship for undocumented farmworkers to have 71% support, and citizenship for undocumented essential workers to have 66% support. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of voters say they would be upset if immigration reform does not pass and a plurality of voters would blame both parties equally for the failure. This is further evidence that Democrats cannot count on voters blaming Republican obstruction for legislative failures on immigration.

Importantly, the survey found that while support is massive for providing citizenship for many different groups, some of the more sympathetic groups include healthcare workers and farmworkers whose labor keeps our food supply chain safe and moving.

Significantly for the battle for the majority in the Senate, a majority of all voters (55%), and a strong majority of Latinos (65%) say they would be less likely to vote for a Senator who votes against citizenship bills like the DREAM Act. Read the full polling memo here.

“Passing major citizenship legislation isn’t just good policy, it’s good politics,” said Alida Garcia, Vice President of Advocacy at FWD.us. “Voters know that our immigration system is broken and stand ready to reward their elected officials for action or punish them for inaction. We’ve seen Republicans try to weaponize anti-immigration rhetoric and scare tactics year after year and fail consistently, it’s time for Democrats to realize that this is a winning issue that must be acted upon. The time for real action on citizenship is now.”

Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice, added, “For the vast majority of voters, the policy question of how Congress should deal with undocumented immigrants is settled. They want their leaders to set up a system by which deeply-rooted immigrant families can come forward, apply for legal status and eventually apply for U.S. citizenship. For most Americans, the debate is not controversial. The frustration is that Congress has not gotten it done. For those many Democrats and those few brave Republicans who will be voting on legalization proposals in the coming days, the way forward is clear: lean in, vote to change people’s lives in a way that strengthens our nation, and formally recognize undocumented immigrants as the Americans they already are.”

Methodology
Global Strategy Group, Garin-Hart-Yang, andLD Insights conducted an online survey of 1,200 nationwide voters and an oversample of 350Latino voters who participated in the 2020 election between February 20-26, 2021. The survey had a confidence interval of +/-2.8%. All interviews were conducted via a web-based panel. Care has been taken to ensure the geographic and demographic divisions of the population of the electorate are properly represented. For the target definitions described in this memo, Base Democrats are defined as Biden voters who always/mostly vote for Democrats, Base Republicans as Trump voters who always/mostly vote for Republicans, and Swing Voters as the remaining voters in the middle of the electorate who do not fall into either group.