Americans want to allow illegal immigrants to stay

More than 72 per cent of Americans say illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the country, according to a recent poll.

Immigration is among the key topics of debates ahead of the 2016 presidential election, and the recent survey by the Pew Research Center revealed that much of the public are behind legalising those who arrived, or are now, in the country illegally. However, attitudes towards other immigration matters are mixed, according to the independent organisation.

Some 72 per cent of those questioned said that illegal immigrants should be allowed to remain in the US as long as they met certain conditions. The results come after surveys by the same group in previous years gathered similar results.

Roughly 11 million immigrants, primarily from Latin America, are residing illegally in the US at present.

Pew’s director of political research Carroll Doherty noted that in recent years, a majority of the public have said they wanted undocumented immigrants to be allowed to stay if they met certain criteria.

Last year the figure was slightly lower at 68 per cent after thousands of children illegally made their way across the border with Mexico in a desperate attempt to escape the ongoing gang violence in Central America.

Of those questioned, four out of 10 believed the immigrants should be entitled to apply for citizenship, while around a quarter claimed they should only be allowed permanent residency. A further 27 per cent were against legalisation. Meanwhile around half of the 2,002 people surveyed thought immigrants strengthened country, compared to 41 per cent who felt they were a burden.