Fox News poll: Voters want immigration reform

Voters want Congress to pass an immigration bill this year, and most support the main provisions in the legislation being considered on Capitol Hill.

After a vote on Tuesday, the Senate will now officially begin debate on an immigration reform bill.  The legislation would strengthen border security and create a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants currently in the country.

A Fox News poll released Thursday finds that most voters generally favor those provisions.

The new poll shows 81 percent of voters want to strengthen border security and stop additional illegal entry into the country.

In addition, 74 percent favor finding a way for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country to remain -- and eventually become citizens -- if they meet certain requirements, such as paying back taxes, learning English and passing a background check.

Republicans (90 percent), people over the age of 65 (87 percent) and whites (83 percent) are among the groups most likely to favor additional border security.

Democrats (82 percent), people under age 30 (81 percent) and non-whites (79 percent) are among those most likely to support a path to citizenship.

Most people -- 76 percent -- think it’s important to pass major immigration reform legislation this year (44 percent say it is “very” important and 32 percent say “somewhat” important).

Large majorities of Democrats (81 percent), independents (74 percent) and Republicans (73 percent), as well as white (74 percent) and non-white voters (79 percent) want immigration reform to happen.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,019 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from June 9 to June 11.  The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.