Voters Agreed on Urgent Need for Legislative Solutions for Dreamers: Recent Polling Shows a Strong Majority of Americans Across the Political Spectrum Support Action

VOTERS AGREED ON URGENT NEED FOR LEGISLATIVE SOLUTION FOR DREAMERS: RECENT POLLING SHOWS A STRONG MAJORITY OF AMERICANS ACROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM SUPPORT ACTION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2022
Contact: Diego Sánchez (diego@presidentsalliance.org) 

Washington, D.C.— While 2022 midterm votes are still being tallied, election results and recent polling already make clear Americans’ strong support for Dreamers. Data show a majority support bipartisan congressional action to deliver a legislative solution before the end of the year and before the impending end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Miriam Feldblum, executive director of the Presidents’ Alliance, stated: “Securing Dreamers’ futures in this nation is a point of bipartisan consensus. A wide array of recent polling affirms that a strong majority of Americans across party lines continue to support the DACA program and Dreamers. Now, it’s up to Congress to make good on Americans’ wishes and to deliver before year’s end on a bipartisan legislative fix that will secure Dreamers’ futures and continued contributions to campuses, communities, and workplaces across America.”

Among the key recent reminders of Americans’ support for Dreamers, polling shows that support for Dreamers and DACA is a point of overwhelming consensus among a strong majority of Americans:

• 68-32%: The new national 12,000-plus sample Midterm Election Voter Poll found 68-32% support for “passing a law right after the election to provide permanent legal status to DACA recipients and Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children but raised in the U.S.” 
• 74-21% support for legislation pairing Dreamers’ citizenship with border security. Late October polling conducted by bipartisan pollsters on behalf of FWD.us found that a majority of voters across the political spectrum supported legislation that would pair an earned path to citizenship for Dreamers with policies to secure the southern border. 82% of Democrats, 73% of Independents, and 58% of Republicans supported such legislation.
• 74-18%: Recent battleground polling of likely voters in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin conducted by Hart Research Associates on behalf of NILC Immigrant Justice Fund found that, by a 74-18% margin, likely voters said they would more likely support a candidate who favored providing a pathway to citizenship to Dreamers. Support for Dreamers’ citizenship included 78% of independent voters, 84% of moderates, and 76% of undecided “persuadable” voters. 

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The nonpartisan, nonprofit Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration brings college and university presidents and chancellors together on the immigration issues that impact higher education, our students, campuses, communities, and nation. We work to advance just, forward-looking immigration policies and practices at the federal, state, and campus levels that are consistent with our heritage as a nation of immigrants and the academic values of equity and openness. The Alliance is composed of over 550 presidents and chancellors of public and private colleges and universities, enrolling over five million students in 43 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico.