Colorado Supports Immigration Reform

Immigration reform has been a top political priority for both parties since the 2012 re-election of President Obama. A comprehensive and bipartisan reform bill passed the U.S. Senate in 2013. Although legislation is stalled in the House due to the politics of the 2014 election, the public remains supportive of an immigration solution.

A majority of Colorado voters (59%) and U.S. residents (57%) support allowing illegal immigrants “to stay in the U.S. and to eventually apply for U.S. citizenship” as opposed to allowing illegal residents to stay, but not become citizens (11%) or “be required to leave” (26%).

The challenge for the Republican Party is that only a quarter of Colorado voters support some form of deportation, but 37 percent of Republicans do, enough to win a primary if that is the paramount issue. A plurality (47%) of Colorado Republicans support a path to citizenship and a majority (53%) of independents.

If a solution is framed that includes strenuous conditions to citizenship, Republicans join Democrats in reform. The approach that elicits the most support is to describe a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants that includes conditions, such as waiting a number of years, having a job, speaking English and paying back taxes. A national CNN poll on February 2, 2014 found 81 percent favored that type of legislation and it included 72 percent of Republicans.

See Quinnipiac poll here