Immigration Reform 2013: Minorities Identify More With A Democratic Approach

As the fate of a comprehensive 2013 immigration reform bill hangs in the balance in the House, more Americans say the Democrats’ views on the issue closely resembles their own. Neither party, though, enjoys a 51 percent majority support from Americans on the issue.

A new poll from Gallup found that 48 percent of American adults prefer the Democratic approach to immigration reform while 36 percent favor the Republicans’ view. Under a Democratic approach, the nation’s current 11 million undocumented immigrants would be given a path to citizenship taking at least 13 years. In order to ease concern about border security, that plan, which passed the Senate last month in a 68-32 vote, would double the number of border patrol agents in the South to 40,000 and add another 700 miles of fencing. Republicans do not support a special pathway to citizenship but rather take an enforcement-first approach to the issue.

Moreover, minority groups overwhelmingly say their views on immigration reform align more with Democrats, while whites are almost evenly divided. Gallup data shows that 60 percent of Hispanics and 70 percent of blacks say Democratic views closely match their own views. Only 26 percent of Hispanics and 14 percent of blacks prefer the Republican approach. Among whites, 42 percent prefer the Republicans’ view compared with 41 percent who favor Democrats. The only age group whose majority supports Republicans’ policies on the issue was those 50 and older.

The Gallup survey of 4,373 people between June 13 and July 5 included interviews with 1,000 Hispanics, 1,010 non-Hispanic blacks and 2,149 non-Hispanic whites.

Take a look below:

Similarly, in a different Gallup poll, conducted between Jan. 3 and June 27, researchers found that Hispanics of all ages are leaning more toward Democrats, and are in fact twice as likely to identify as such. This was based on an analysis of 7,901 Hispanics.

This is what it looks like with independents added to the mix:

This is what it looks like without independents assigned to either party: