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Most Americans See Unaccompanied Immigrant Kids As Refugees, Poll Says

Most Americans See Unaccompanied Immigrant Kids As Refugees, Poll Says
Reuters
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Immigrants who have been detained while crossing the border are housed inside the McAllen Border Patrol Station in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday July 15, 2014. A solution for the growing crisis of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border is looking increasingly elusive with three weeks left before Congress leaves Washington for an annual August recess. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Rick Loomis, Pool)

July 29 (Reuters) - Some 70 percent of Americans think the United States should provide temporary support and housing for unaccompanied Central American minors who illegally cross into the country while their cases undergo review, according to a poll released on Tuesday.

Across political leanings and religious backgrounds, most Americans believe the recent influx of immigrant children should be treated like refugees if authorities think they cannot be returned home safely rather than face immediate deportation, according to the poll by the Public Religion Research Institute.

The findings come as the United States struggles to cope with a mounting influx of newcomers, mostly from crime-plagued Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. The rush of people is overwhelming immigration resources and leading to scattered protests from people angry at the government for housing border crossers in their communities.

Democrats and youth were most compassionate toward the immigrant children, with roughly 80 percent of both groups saying the government should support them until their cases are fully reviewed. Seniors, white Protestants and Republicans were the least welcoming, though all groups showed majority support.

Roughly 80 percent of those polled considered the spiking numbers of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S. border in recent months a serious problem or crisis, compared to just one in five who thought it was only a minor problem.

Despite broad agreement on the issues surrounding unaccompanied minors, there was a growing view that immigrants hurt the country by taking jobs, housing and healthcare services meant for U.S. citizens.

In the most recent round of polling, 42 percent of respondents considered immigrants a burden, up from 35 percent earlier in the month. And only 49 percent believed that immigrants strengthened the country, down from 55 percent at the start of the month.

"There is evidence that recent events are impacting what Americans think about immigrants generally," said Daniel Cox, PRRI Research Director.

There was still majority support however for legislation that would open a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, with 58 percent of those polled backing such a policy.

The poll surveyed 1,026 adults in the month of July, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. (Reporting by Curtis Skinner in New York; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Before You Go

6 Misconceptions About The Border
The U.S.-Mexico border is violent(01 of06)
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It certainly is in some places, but those don't tend to be on the U.S. side. In fact, El Paso, Texas and San Diego, California are the two safest cities in the country, according to Congressional Quarterly. While Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has repeatedly said the border in her state is dangerous, crime statistics reported by USA Today and The Huffington Post show that violent crime has dropped along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, as well as California, New Mexico and Texas. (credit:AP)
The porous U.S.-Mexico border is vulnerable to terrorists(02 of06)
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That’s not the assessment of the U.S. government. The Mexico section of the most recent State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism reads:
No known international terrorist organization had an operational presence in Mexico and no terrorist group targeted U.S. citizens in or from Mexican territory. There was no evidence of ties between Mexican criminal organizations and terrorist groups, nor that the criminal organizations had political or territorial control, aside from seeking to protect and expand the impunity with which they conduct their criminal activity.
H/T: Washington Office on Latin America. (credit:In this photo provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a silver Jeep Cherokee that suspected smugglers were attempting to drive over the U.S.-Mexico border fence is stuck at the top of a makeshift ramp early Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012 near Yuma, )
The border is insecure(03 of06)
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Depends on how you define "secure." By practically all measurements, the border is at its most secure point in recent history. There's more than 20,000 Border Patrol agents stationed along the border now -- about double the number since 2004. Apprehensions along the border, one of the most reliable measures of illegal entry, are at their lowest level in 40 years. But politicians have yet to agree on how to define what "secure" will mean for legal purposes. (credit:In this Sept. 4, 2012, photo, Max Pons, manager of the Nature Conservancy's southernmost preserve, walks past the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Brownsville, Texas. (AP))
Obama has been soft on enforcement(04 of06)
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Not so. In fact, it's one of the biggest gripes immigration activists have with him. While Obama has exempted many people who came to the United States as children from deportation, he has also set records, deporting over 400,000 people last fiscal year and removing more migrants in one term than George W. Bush did in two. (credit:A group of undocumented immigrants wait in line while being deported to Mexico at the Nogales Port of Entry in Nogales, Ariz., Wednesday, July 28, 2010. (AP))
The U.S. hasn't committed enough resources to securing the border(05 of06)
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Again, depends on who you ask. The $18 billion the federal government spent on border enforcement in the 2012 fiscal year was more than it spent on than on other law enforcement agencies combined, according to the Migration Policy Institute -- about 15 times more than it did in the mid-1980s. Is that enough, especially in a context in which illegal immigration stands at net zero? If, not, what is? (credit:In this Aug. 9, 2012 file photo, a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle keeps watch along the border fence in Nogales, Ariz. (AP))
Illegal immigration continues to skyrocket(06 of06)
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Nope. For all the talk from outraged politicians, you'd think that immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border remains at historically high levels. In fact, illegal immigration from Mexico has dropped to net zero or less, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. (credit:In this May 18, 2006 file photo, a man rests his hands on a fence looking out to the United States from a Mexican customs station after being detained by U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona and returned to Mexico in Nogales, Mexico. The border near Nogales is c)
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