One-quarter of the U.S. public favors an increase in the number of immigrants permitted into the country, while 40 percent say levels should remain steady and 34 percent would like fewer allowed in, according to the
results of a new Gallup survey.
The 25 percent who advocate increased immigration levels is double what it was in June 2002, less than a year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when that figure registered at 12 percent.
Gallup conducted its Minority Rights and Relations survey via telephone interviews with a random sample of 2,296 adults, aged 18 and older, between June 15-July 10. The survey included an expanded sample of blacks and Hispanics, known as "oversampling," and done to glean "a closer look at attitudes and opinions of minority groups whose representation in the sample of a standard poll might otherwise be too small for statistical analysis," according to Gallup.
Respondents' answers varied greatly depending on their race and ethnicity.
Thirty-six percent of Hispanics — more than any other group — favored an increase in immigration levels, compared with 21 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 30 percent of blacks.
There was no meaningful statistical difference in answers from Hispanics born in the U.S. and those born outside the country, according to Gallup.
"Despite these differences, the overall trend is similar for all three groups," according to pollsters. "Support for allowing increased immigration levels hit a low ebb for all races/ethnicities in the years immediately after 9/11, and climbed to new or nearly new highs in 2015."
Large majorities of all three races — 72 percent of whites, 70 percent of blacks and 81 percent of Hispanics — agreed that immigration has been good for the country.
"The current trends suggest that more U.S. adults believe immigration levels should increase than did so a decade ago, but that view still trails the percentage who want levels decreased or kept the same," according to Gallup.
"The growing acceptance of increased immigration levels is evident across racial and ethnic lines, though again this is hardly the predominant position.
"But even as the overall specifics may be the subject of continued debate, the notion that immigration is a good thing for the U.S. is something the public widely accepts."