Poll finds 90 percent of Americans are open to a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants

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last updated 18 March 2017

A majority of Americans don't support President Trump's hard-line stances on immigration, a CNN/ORC poll released Friday revealed. While Trump has pledged to build a multi-billion dollar U.S.-Mexico border wall and strictly enforce U.S. immigration laws, nearly two-thirds of Americans say the nation's top priority should be offering undocumented immigrants a path to legal citizenship. Just 26 percent say stopping illegal border crossings should be a top priority, while 13 percent say the main concern should be deporting undocumented immigrants.

A notable 90 percent of Americans support offering undocumented immigrants who "hold a job, speak English, and are willing to pay back taxes" a path to legal citizenship, CNN reported. The idea garnered almost equal support from both sides of the aisle, with 96 percent of Democrats, 89 percent of Independents, and 87 percent of Republicans backing it. Though Trump has floated the idea of an immigration reform compromise, he has offered few details.

The poll, which surveyed 1,025 Americans by phone, was taken from March 1 to 4. Its overall margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.