For Immediate Release
Contact: Dan Gordon, 617-651-0841
Aug. 30, 2022
Americans Want Immigration Reforms That Address Food Prices, Labor Shortages, Border
In New Poll, Large Majorities Support Action This Year
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly 4 in 5 of American adults (77%) want Democrats and Republicans to work together this year on immigration reforms that could reduce food prices by helping America’s farmers.
Along with a strong majority of overall support, the survey this month of 1,200 adults, including 1,000 registered voters, found support across the political ideological spectrum: More than 75% of conservatives, moderates and liberals supported "Republicans and Democrats working together this year on reforms that could help lower food prices by ensuring a legal, reliable workforce for America’s farmers and ranchers."
In addition, more than 70% across these ideological groups support "Republicans and Democrats working together this year on improving legal immigration options that could address labor shortages and reduce pressures at the border."
Notable in addition to the support was the disparity between support and opposition among respondents overall: by a 66-point margin (support to opposition) on the first question, and roughly a 55-point margin on the second. Additional questions revealed that well over 60% of respondents think such reforms would help address these challenges.
The National Immigration Forum and Americans for Prosperity worked with The Bullfinch Group to include these questions.
"Americans recognize that immigration reforms this year can help address some of our most pressing challenges," said Dan Gordon, Vice President of Strategic Communications at the National Immigration Forum. "All Americans will benefit when Democrats and Republicans reach solutions that address the border, agriculture and legal-immigration processes that honor the contributions of immigrants already here."
"At a time when prices continue to surge, Washington has an opportunity to bring relief to the American public by modernizing and strengthening our country’s agricultural workforce," said Jorge Lima, Senior Vice President of Policy at Americans for Prosperity. "This latest poll confirms what the American people have been consistently saying for years: Lawmakers need to put partisan politics aside and fix our country’s broken immigration system.
"They can start now by ensuring that our farmers have a reliable workforce to draw from in order to meet labor demands. We urge lawmakers to bring relief to the American people today."
Polling crosstabs are available for all adults and for registered voters.
The new poll follows a February survey in which nearly 4 in 5 registered voters said they would support the two parties "working together on immigration reforms that strengthen border security, create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, and ensure a legal, reliable workforce for America’s farmers and ranchers."
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The National Immigration Forum and Americans for Prosperity in conjunction with The Bullfinch Group conducted a nationwide online survey fielded Aug. 5-8, 2022, among 1,208 adults, of whom 1,008 respondents were registered voters. Sampling controls were used to ensure that a proportional and representative number of respondents were interviewed from demographic groups such as age, gender, political affiliation, race, and geographic region. The overall margin of error is ±2.82% at the 95% confidence interval for overall survey. The margin of error for registered voters is ±3.09% at the 95% confidence interval.
