Illegal immigration and the Biden administration
Under the Biden administration, the President has worked to reverse some of the stringent immigration policies that former president Donald Trump passed. These policies included stopping the Mexican border wall construction, protecting DACA recipients, and ending the travel ban on several Muslim majority countries. One of his proposed legislations includes the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which would provide a path to citizenship to as many 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. This would include DACA recipients, agricultural workers, Temporary Protected Status beneficiaries, and any undocumented individual who has been physically present in the U.S. on or before January 1, 2021, as long as they pay their taxes and can pass criminal and national security background checks. While a majority of Americans support this plan, most of the support comes from Democratic voters.Public opinion on immigration
While public support for immigration has increased significantly over the years, recent studies have found Americans less likely to believe that immigration is a good thing for the United States in comparison to previous years. A 2023 survey further found that American opinions were split on whether immigration makes the U.S. better off or worse off, with 31 percent of respondents indicating that immigration made the country better off while 36 percent said it made the country worse off.However, in a 2020 poll on illegal immigrants being allowed to stay in the U.S. if they fulfill certain criteria, 75 percent of American respondents believed that illegal immigrants should have a way to them to stay legally if certain requirements are met. Around 24 percent of respondents thought that illegal immigrants should not be allowed to stay in the country legally.
