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SALT LAKE CITY — Poll results released indicate 57 percent of Utahns definitively believe Dreamers "should be allowed to stay in the country," while 16 percent believe they "must be deported."
The Utah Policy poll, conducted May 15 through May 25 by Dan Jones & Associates and released Tuesday, asked respondents "should so-called Dreamers be allowed to stay in the country, or should they be deported?"
Eighteen percent of respondents "said some other solution should be found" and 9 percent were undecided, Utah Policy reported.
What an "other solution" might look like, or whether such an option was described to respondents, was not clear. Utah Policy's report on the poll didn't indicate whether any questions were asked specifically about a path to citizenship for Dreamers.
The released results come amid intensifying talks in Congress on new immigration legislation, which could potentially include a compromise that provides some statutory protections for Dreamers.
The term "Dreamers" is used to refer to recipients of a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
The program was instituted in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama to provide legal residency for certain undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the United States by June of that year or earlier when they were 15 or younger, giving them the ability to work in the country legally if they meet certain criteria such as a clean criminal record.
President Donald Trump's administration announced last fall it would be rescinding DACA with a six-month phaseout, calling the program an unconstitutional overstep of presidential power.
DACA remains valid for now, after its revocation was successfully challenged in federal courts, though legal fights over its legitimacy are still ongoing and uncertainty remains over recipients' long-term legal status in the country.
Of Democrats surveyed in the Utah Policy poll, 90 percent favored Dreamers staying in the country and 1 percent supported deportation. Thirty-eight percent of Republican respondents wanted Dreamers to stay, while 24 percent wanted deportation.
Among self-identified political independents, 70 percent supported Dreamers staying in the country and 12 percent favored deportation.
The survey found 49 percent of LDS Church member respondents who self-identified as "very active" are in favor of Dreamers staying in the United States, with 17 percent of that group supporting deportation. Of Protestants who were surveyed, 53 percent indicated Dreamers "should be allowed to stay in the country," with 19 percent in support of deportation.
Eighty percent of Catholics surveyed favored Dreamers staying in the country, and 13 percent wanted deportation.
The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points. Surveyors interviewed 615 likely Utah voters.
