Poll: Majority of Likely Voters in Swing States Support Ending Chain Migration

A majority of likely American voters in five swing states support ending the United States’ current legal immigration system whereby more than 1.2 million legal immigrants are admitted every year, mostly for no reason other than they have family members already living in the country.

The latest Zogby Analytics poll conducted for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) finds that likely U.S. voters in Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin — all swing states in the 2020 presidential election — by a majority support ending the process known as “chain migration,” whereby newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S.

Nearly 70 percent of all legal immigration to the U.S. comes through chain migration. Nearly ten million legal immigrants have been admitted to the country through chain migration in the last decade, alone, and in the next two decades, chain migration is expected to import about eight million new foreign-born voters.

Trump, last month, proposed an overhaul of the legal immigration system that would have ended chain migration and replaced it with a rigorous process that selected foreign nationals for admission to the U.S. based on their ability to work in higher wage fields, support themselves financially, speak English, and have knowledge of American civics.

A range of 51 to more than 55 percent likely voter majorities in Arizona, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin said they supported ending chain migration and transitioning to a merit-based legal immigration system.

Meanwhile, only about 33 to 39.7 percent of likely voters in those five swing states said they opposed ending chain migration. In Florida, with a large foreign-born population, less than 33.5 percent of likely voters said they opposed ending chain migration.

In Michigan, the sixth swing state polled by Zogby Analytics, nearly half of likely voters — or 49.5 percent — said they supported ending chain migration. Only about four-in-ten likely Michigan voters said they opposed ending chain migration.

The poll puts swing state likely voters overwhelmingly on Trump’s side in terms of ending chain migration and at odds with leading Democrat presidential primary front-runners like Joe Biden. While in Congress, between 1989 to 2008, Biden either opposed ending chain migration or voted to expand chain migration to the U.S.

Each swing state poll was conducted May 23 through May 29 with a margin of errors +/- 4.3 to 4.4 percent.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.