Millennials, the biggest demographic in the United States, overwhelmingly disagree with the idea of deporting the country’s entire undocumented immigrant population. The most recent national poll from Opinion Research Corporation and CNN suggests that millennials, largely comprised of those between the ages of 18 and 34, want the government to make giving legal status to undocumented immigrants with jobs its top priority.
64% of millennials want allowing employed immigrants to remain in the United States to be a major priority, although 26% would like to see a plan put in place to stop future illegal immigration. Just 9% of millennials want to see the government deport all undocumented immigrants.
The second option presented, to which 61% of millennials gave their support, was to see the government come up with a way to prevent illegal immigration, with 21% supporting the enforcement of deportation laws and 16% wanting employed immigrants to be able to legally remain in the United States. The great majority of millennials – 76% – do not want to see all undocumented immigrants currently living in the country deported, although 23% are in favor of the government coming up with a plan for deportation. 91% do not believe it is possible to deport all illegal immigrants.
62% of millennials believe that the US economy would be adversely affected by the deportation of all undocumented immigrants. This idea was proposed by Donald Trump and received much criticism from other politicians and the media.