More than 63 percent of Americans want the lawmakers to pass an immigration reform bill that includes a pathway to U.S. citizenship for the country’s undocumented immigrants, according to the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute. Around 14 percent of Americans do not want the country to put such immigrants on a path to U.S. citizenship but support a path to legal resident status.
Most of the Americans surveyed expressed strong support for U.S. citizenship for the undocumented immigrants living in the country while the Republicans are working on bills that would not put the undocumented immigrants on a direct path to citizenship.
According to the Public Religion Research Institute’s report, 60 percent of Republicans, 73 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of independents, are in favor of a path to citizenship. Likewise, most of the Catholics, Protestants and people with no religious affiliation also want a bill that would authorize the undocumented immigrants to apply for citizenship.
Though most of the Americans favor allowing undocumented immigrants to become citizens of the United States, there are some who are against it. They just want the country to legalize the undocumented immigrants without allowing them to obtain citizenship. There are also some who feel that the undocumented immigrants must be deported.
In June, a comprehensive bipartisan bill was passed by the US Senate. This bill includes a pathway to legal residency for the undocumented immigrants and to U.S. citizenship. However, it includes some hurdles – the undocumented immigrants need to pay taxes and pass background checks to apply for legal status. They also need to establish that they are good in English.
The members of the House are not ready to take up the Senate’s comprehensive bill, but they are looking to address the issue in smaller bills. According to the House members, their bills would provide the undocumented immigrants legal status but not U.S. citizenship.
Public Religion Research Institute’s report shows that majority of Americans believe that the immigration system of the country is broken and must to be fixed.