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Poll: Majority supports path to citizenship for illegal immigrants
More than half of all Americans support a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, according to a poll released Wednesday, giving further ammunition to those pressing for comprehensive immigration reform.
According to the survey, from The Washington Post and ABC News, 57 percent of Americans say that undocumented workers should be given a path to legal status. Among Hispanics, support jumps to 82 percent — particularly notable after the group accounted for 10 percent of voters in last week's presidential election, the first time the demographic has broken double digits within the national electorate.
More than seven in 10 Democrats supported a path to citizenship, and 69 percent of young adults say the same. A majority of non-Hispanic whites, 51 percent, also back the measure.
“It’s an important issue that I think ought to be dealt with. This issue has been around far too long,” Boehner said. “While I believe it’s important for us to secure our borders and to enforce our laws, I think a comprehensive approach is long overdue, and I’m confident that the president, myself, others, can find the common ground to take care of this issue once and for all.”
And a top Hispanic surrogate to the Romney campaign suggested Wednesday that an extreme immigration position had mortally wounded the GOP nominee's presidential campaign. President Obama won Hispanic voters 71 percent to 27, according to exit polls.
“The primary process has been taken over by the extremes,” said former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. “The process forced Gov. Romney to be on the extreme right during the primaries and then in the general he had to work his way back to the center. The primaries gave the opposition so many talking points to use against Gov. Romney.”
According to progressive leaders who met with President Obama on Tuesday, the president also looks primed to tackle immigration reform.
"I've been in a number of meetings with him on this topic, it's been pretty rough, but this one, the passion, intensity, seriousness — I was pretty struck," one attendee told the Huffington Post. "If there's one thing he was crystal-clear he was going to get done in 2013 ... it was immigration reform. He was going to lean into it; he was sure Republicans were going to come to the table. It was sort of what he's said before, but with huge conviction."
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