Washington, Aug 26 (Globe Live Media) – 65% of voters in states where close elections are approaching want Congress to resolve the situation of the “dreamers” if the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program remains stuck in lawsuits, according to surveys released today.
The surveys were conducted between July 22 and August 3 by the firms BSP Research and Hart Research Associates for the Service Employees International Guild (SEIU), and the liberal group Immigration Hub.
The “dreamers” are immigrants who were brought to the United States irregularly when they were minors, and hundreds of thousands of them are protected from deportation by the DACA program, created in 2012 by the administration of then President Barack Obama.
The now former president Donald Trump (2017-2021) ordered the end of the program, and the situation of these immigrants has been put on hold due to lawsuits, rulings and appeals that have taken the matter to the Supreme Court.
The government of the current president, Joe Biden, concluded last Wednesday a rule to transform the deferred deportation program into a measure that would protect more than 600,000 of these immigrants.
The opinion polls, the results of which are being released today, were conducted among 1,618 likely voters in so-called “battleground” states, where the November elections look close, and among 800 Latinos who are likely to vote in those elections.
The states that pollsters see as the scene of the closest races are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
70% of voters in those states agree with the Democratic Party’s position that a path to legalization and US citizenship should be opened for undocumented immigrants.
65% of those surveyed indicated that Congress should act to protect “dreamers” if DACA is canceled in court, and that opinion is shared by 78% of Latino voters, according to the statement from the polling firms.