Americans Have Become More Hawkish on Illegal Immigration — but Not Legal Migration

The U.S. electorate has moved more toward Donald Trump’s posture on illegal immigration since he first came to power in 2017, as we noted last month, giving the president-elect more political capital on the subject for his upcoming term as he prepares harsh enforcement efforts.

But when it comes to legal immigration, the public has not shifted in the MAGA movement’s direction. And as the Trump administration signals it will seek to curtail the number of immigrants accepted via the lawful process, voters have actually become slightly more dovish on the subject. 

While a recent Morning Consult survey shows one-third of U.S. voters say that America accepts “too many” legal immigrants as a whole, that number is unchanged since August 2017, when Trump was pushing Republicans on Capitol Hill to overhaul the legal process.  

What’s more, fewer voters now see “too many” high-skilled legal immigrants in America’s work force than did seven years ago — and the change was even larger when it comes to low-skilled workers relied upon by the agricultural and hospitality industries.

Among GOP voters, Republican lawmakers’ main priority given the threat of primary challenges, many still see too many “low-skilled” legal immigrant workers (50%). But even that figure is down slightly from 2017.  About a quarter of GOP voters see too many high-skilled immigrant workers, who fill many white-collar roles, up just 2 points from the earlier data point.

While voters on the whole haven’t become more hawkish on legal immigration, it’s a slightly different story with voters of color, who have become a bit more likely to say the country accepts too many legal immigrants.

Since 2017, the share of Black or Hispanic voters who see too much legal immigration has increased to 30% and 33%, respectively, though more in both groups continue to say America accepts too few or the right amount.

Along with efforts to target levels of legal migration, the Trump transition has also promised executive action to try to end birthright citizenship for children whose parents are in the country illegally. Since we asked about this in 2018, the long-standing constitutional right that allows children born in the country to be citizens regardless of their parents’ status has grown more popular — even among Trump’s loyal base.

According to the latest survey, 61% of all voters support birthright citizenship, up from 55% in 2018. Nearly 4 in 5 Democrats, 3 in 5 independents and more Republican voters than not say they support the policy. Roughly 3 in 10 voters oppose it, including 43% of Republicans, matching our 2018 survey. Since then, opposition has dipped a bit among white voters but increased among Black and Hispanic voters as this chunk of the electorate has become less ideologically liberal. 

The bottom line

Immigration reform broadly is a top priority of Trump’s Republican base, and it is up there on the larger electorate’s hopes under a GOP governing trifecta. But even as fewer Americans are expressing dovishness about immigration regarding undocumented immigrants or so-called “Dreamers” than in 2017 or 2021, there hasn’t been such a movement against migrants in the United States legally. 

That, combined with a lack of consensus on the topic on the Republican side of the electorate, could give businesses that rely on legal migrant labor a bigger leg to stand on in the pending policy fights than those pro-immigrant groups expressing moral outrage about the way Trump is expected handle people who come to the country illegally.