Poll: Immigration Reform Is Popular in Key States

More than six in ten Americans support creating a path to citizenship for the country’s estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants, as long as those immigrants meet certain requirements.

That’s from polling data released on Monday by the Public Religion Research Institute.

Despite the debate around immigration reform this year — involving high-profile players like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg — the nationwide attitudes on citizenship have remained nearly unchanged, according to the poll.

One thing that has shifted, however: more people now view the immigration system as “completely broken.”

The poll found that people living in Arizona and Florida supported a path to citizenship in roughly the same numbers as the rest of the country. Potential 2016 presidential candidates should take note: citizenship plays well in key states.

There’s also a subtle message in the poll for Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner. He’s the one person who could give immigration reform a fighting chance, if he was willing to bring a bill to the floor in the House of Representatives.

His home state of Ohio was in line with the rest of the country when it came to supporting citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Ted Hesson was formerly the immigration editor at Fusion, covering the issue from Washington, D.C. He also writes about drug laws and (occasionally) baseball. On the side: guitars, urban biking, and fiction.