CNN Poll: Illegal Immigration ‘Important’ to 9 in 10 Voters

Nearly nine in 10 registered voters (89%) believe that illegal immigration will be an “important” issue for them in the 2016 presidential race.

A new CNN/ORC poll, which was conducted September 4-8 and has a margin of error of +/- three percentage points, found that 39% of registered voters believe illegal immigration is “extremely important” to their vote. Another 29% believe the issue is “very important” and 21% said illegal immigration is “moderately important.” Just 11% said illegal immigration is “not that important.”

Gallup also released a survey, which was conducted June 15-July 10, that found 80% of Americans believe that immigration will be an “important” issue to them in 2016. According to Gallup’s poll, 20% of “U.S. registered voters say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on immigration, with another 60% saying it will be one of many important considerations they take into account.” A recent Rasmussen Reports survey found that illegal immigration was important to 80% of voters and majorities of conservatives and even moderates believed that border security was more important than granting legal status for illegal immigrants.

As Breitbart News has reported, a Pew Research survey conducted May 12-18 found that an overwhelming 70% of Americans do not the country’s immigration levels to increase while 41% surveyed felt that immigrants “are a burden because they take jobs, housing and health care.” In addition, as Breitbart News has been noting, another “Gallup poll found that nearly 60% of Americans were dissatisfied with the country’s immigration levels and only 7% in the Gallup survey wanted more immigration at this time.” Further, “a Polling Company poll last year found that a majority of Americans wanted a pause in the country’s immigration levels.”

Americans may be concerned about illegal immigration and immigration levels not just because of recent crimes by illegal immigrants, like Kate Steinle’s murder by an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times, that mainstream media networks that try their best to hide the immigration status of criminals finally headlined. As Donald Trump’s surge has reflected, Americans may also be concerned that illegal immigration–and even some legal immigration–may be making it more difficult for those who are still struggling in President Barack Obama’s economy to find jobs.

Trump’s pro-worker immigration plan, which has been praised by the likes of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), among other things, would reform the H-1b visa system to benefit American workers while pausing the issuance of green cards until more Americans–U.S.-born and legal immigrants–are employed.

“Before any new green cards are issued to foreign workers abroad, there will be a pause where employers will have to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed immigrant and native workers,” Trump writes in his plan. “This will help reverse women’s plummeting workplace participation rate, grow wages, and allow record immigration levels to subside to more moderate historical averages.”

Trump’s plan also mentions that, “every year, we voluntarily admit another 2 million new immigrants, guest workers, refugees, and dependents, growing our existing all-time historic record population of 42 million immigrants.”

“We need to control the admission of new low-earning workers in order to: help wages grow, get teenagers back to work, aid minorities’ rise into the middle class, help schools and communities falling behind, and to ensure our immigrant members of the national family become part of the American dream,” he continues.

Trump’s plan also notes that “nearly 40% of black teenagers are unemployed” today along with nearly “30% of Hispanic teenagers.” He mentions that “for black Americans without high school diplomas, the bottom has fallen out: more than 70% were employed in 1960, compared to less than 40% in 2000.”

Slate’s Jamelle Bouie, though he was unfamiliar with the details of Trump’s immigration plan, even conceded that black voters may be concerned in 2016 about immigrants who are “competing with African-American workers” for jobs and that it is “not a bad play as far as strategy goes” for Trump to court black voters by focusing on immigration.