A majority of Americans believe that illegal immigrant juveniles are coming to America because they think the Obama administration will grant them amnesty.
A YouGov/Economist poll found that 57 percent of Americans — including 51 percent of Hispanics, 44 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of independents, and 78 percent Republicans — believe “the main reason” for the increase in illegal immigrant juveniles from Central America is that they “believe that the US government is or will be granting amnesty to” illegal immigrant children. Respondents were asked:
What do you think is the main reason there has been an increase in the number of unaccompanied children attempting to illegally cross into the United States? (A)Increase in violent crime in Central America; (B) Belief that the US government is or will be granting amnesty to undocumented immigrant children; (C) Not sure
In the online poll, which was conducted July 19-21 and has a margin of error is +/- 4.3 percentage points, 81 percent of respondents also said the illegal immigration problem was a serious one. The number of illegal immigrant juveniles, nearly 90 percent of whom are teenagers, who have been apprehended at the border drastically spiked in the year after President Barack Obama enacted his temporary amnesty program for certain DREAMers in 2012.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has urged Congress to support Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) bill to prevent Obama from giving future illegal immigrants temporary amnesty. Sessions has also said that Congress should not pass any bill that does not prevent Obama from spending federal dollars to implement more executive amnesty programs, including work permits for illegal immigrant adults.