Poll: Swing of More than 20 Percentage Points Against Pathway to Citizenship

There has been a 20-point swing against providing a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants since last year. 

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 64% favored a pathway to citizenship last spring while 35% opposed. In September, 53% support and 45% oppose, which is “a swing of more than 20 percentage points.”

The poll also found that a plurality of Americans believe Republicans would do a better job handling immigration issues. 

After Breitbart Texas broke the story of illegal immigrants that were being warehoused in detention centers in Texas, the mainstream media were forced to cover the issue, and public opinion soon shifted. President Barack Obama conceded over the weekend that he was delaying his executive amnesty because the politics changed during the summer. And Bill McInturff, the Republican co-director of the poll, acknowledged that “the Central American kids totally reopened the dialogue about whether our borders were secure.”

Though 63% of Americans in another national poll oppose illegal immigrants receiving work permits, the poll did not simply ask, “do you favor giving citizenship to illegal immigrants?” Instead, the poll, which was conducted by two outlets that have been relentless in pushing a pathway to citizenship, asked respondents a more roundabout question: “As you may know, there is a proposal to create a pathway to citizenship that would allow foreigners who have jobs but are staying illegally in the United States the opportunity to eventually become legal American citizens?” 

The poll was conducted Sept. 3-7 and has a margin of error of /- 3.1 percentage points.