According to a recent poll conducted by Politico, voters who are in places with the most competitive Senate and House races appeared to show an interest in a sweeping change to th current immigration laws in the US. Politico said that a push for a comprehensive reform of the said laws enjoys bipartisan backing across the board, and is particularly intense among voters who are of Hispanic race.
Designed by SocialSphere and conducted by research company GfK, 867 likely voters have participated in the survey between May 2 and 13.
The poll said 71% of the potential voters that were surveyed, and 9 out of 10 Hispanics, had expressed their desire for immigration reform. 54% of Republican respondents agree to back change in immigration laws, while 78% of Democrats also expressed their intention to support such movement.
The survey was reportedly done in English and Spanish, perhaps in order to conduct the poll with Hispanic voters who speak or comprehend English. Among the Hispanic voters who participated in the poll, 41% of them will strongly support a comprehensive reform of US immigration measures, while 28% of white voters and 17% of African American voters have said the same. It was not clear whether Politico have conducted the survey with other minorities like Asians, for example.
When Politico asked how important the proposal to change immigration laws in voting a candidate, 85% Hispanics indicated that it was the main criterion for them to select the candidate to vote for, while 74% and 28% white and African American voters respectively said that it is an important criterion.
Only 28% of the voters surveyed overall had expressed opposition to reform the country's laws on immigration, Politico discovered.
The move to push the reform on the US immigration bill has been slowing since its introduction. House Speaker John Boehner staff member Valerie Jarrett recently confirmed another stumbling block of the Obama administration's push for reform when she told a local paper that the speaker has not made any commitments yet, but is trying to accelerate the proposed change in the US immigration system.
