{"id":15070,"date":"2013-10-25T00:01:16","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T05:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/half-of-americans-say-its-essential-to-reform-immigration-this-year\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:27:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:27:50","slug":"half-of-americans-say-its-essential-to-reform-immigration-this-year","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/10\/25\/half-of-americans-say-its-essential-to-reform-immigration-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Half of Americans say it\u2019s essential to reform immigration this year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the standoff over the federal budget and debt ceiling behind him for now, President Obama turned again to one of the issues he put at the top of his agenda at the beginning of this year \u2013 an overhaul of the nation\u2019s immigration laws. In an appearance in the White House East Room on Thursday, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2013\/10\/24\/remarks-president-immigration-reform\">he declared<\/a>, \u201cWe should do it this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-250700\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/10\/DN_Immigration_Action.png\" alt=\"DN_Immigration_Action\" width=\"299\" height=\"233\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Immigration was one of several issues that figured prominently in Obama\u2019s State of the Union address in February. \u00a0A Pew Research Center survey conducted shortly after the speech tested several of those issues and found that 51% of Americans deemed action on major immigration legislation to be \u201cessential\u201d this year. About equal numbers of Democrats, Republicans and independents agreed.\u00a0 Just under four-in-ten (37%) said action on immigration was something that could be done in the \u201cnext few years\u201d and 7% said it should not be done at all.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><!--more--><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A more recent <a href=\"http:\/\/maristpoll.marist.edu\/726-majority-wants-immediate-action-on-immigrationborder-protection-key\/\">McClatchy\/Marist Poll survey<\/a>, conducted in July, produced a similar result to the Pew research survey on the need for action this year.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The public\u2019s urgency of enacting new immigration legislation was far less\u00a0 than that for addressing the federal deficit. Seven-in-ten said action on the deficit was essential this year. On two other issues raised by Obama in his State of the Union, 46% said passage of major gun legislation was essential this year and 34% said the same about new climate change policies.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Immigration has not ranked among the highest priorities among Americans, according to polls conducted by two news organizations since summer. In a <a href=\"http:\/\/i2.cdn.turner.com\/cnn\/2013\/images\/09\/11\/rel8g.pdf\">CNN\/ORC survey<\/a> in September, 3% named immigration as the most important issue facing the country today, far behind the economy (41%), health care (16%), Syria (15%) and the deficit (13%).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/8301-250_162-57595297\/poll-americans-still-dissatisfied-with-washington-economy\/\">CBS News poll<\/a> conducted in July asked those surveyed to name the most important thing for Congress \u201cto concentrate on right now.\u201d Again, immigration at 8% was low on the list. Four-in-ten named the economy, 16% cited the deficit, 15% said it was health care and 12% named education.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Obama called yesterday for action this year on immigration; about half of Americans said passage of major legislation this year was essential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[],"bylines":[859],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-15070","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","bylines-bruce-drake","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":331,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/10\/25\/half-of-americans-say-its-essential-to-reform-immigration-this-year\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Half of Americans say it\u2019s essential to reform immigration this year","description":"President Obama called yesterday for action this year on immigration; 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