Legal Immigration

Overview Americans overwhelmingly say the nation’s immigration policy is in need of sweeping changes. Overall, 75% say immigration policy needs at least major changes, with 35% saying it needs to be “completely rebuilt”—among the highest of seven policy areas tested. Yet the broad public agreement that immigration policy should be revamped is not matched by […]

Overview A new survey finds that seven-in-ten Americans (71%) say there should be a way for people in the United States illegally to remain in this country if they meet certain requirements, while 27% say they should not be allowed to stay legally. Most who favor providing illegal immigrants with some form of legal status […]

Overview Nearly two-thirds of the 5.4 million legal immigrants from Mexico who are eligible to become citizens of the United States have not yet taken that step. Their rate of naturalization—36%—is only half that of legal immigrants from all other countries combined, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, […]

The issue of immigration reform is again a hot topic in Washington, with news of a bipartisan Senate compromise proposal to overhaul immigration laws. But immigration is only a middle-tier issue on the public’s agenda, and it has declined in importance since the end of the Bush administration. In the Pew Research Center’s annual policy […]

The American public has repeatedly expressed support for Arizona’s immigration law, much of which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.

Overview The public continues to favor tough measures to crack down on illegal immigration. Yet Americans see no contradiction in supporting both stepped-up border security and a way for people already in the United States illegally to gain citizenship. The idea of changing the constitution to bar the children of illegal immigrants from becoming citizens […]

Overview The public broadly supports a new Arizona law aimed at dealing with illegal immigration and the law’s provisions giving police increased powers to stop and detain people who are suspected of being in the country illegally. Fully 73% say they approve of requiring people to produce documents verifying their legal status if police ask […]

The current economic slowdown has taken a far greater toll on non-citizen immigrants than it has on the United States population as a whole.

The proportion of all legal foreign-born residents who have become naturalized U.S. citizens rose to 52% in 2005, the highest level in a quarter of a century and a 15 percentage point increase since 1990.

This statistical profile of the foreign born population is based on Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of the Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey public use microdata file, which was released August 29, 2006.