Legal Immigration

Last updated: February 2026.

Key Point Summary

Multiple polls conducted in 2025 show no strong consensus on the part of the American public when asked about increasing, decreasing, or maintaining current levels of legal immigration. The overall picture is one of continuing ambivalence, with a tilt toward stability, with smaller but fluid percentages of Americans advocating for change in either direction. By late 2025, the share favoring reduction in legal immigration appears to have softened to its lowest levels in recent years. A January 2025 question which asked only about increasing legal immigration showed a significantly more positive than negative response.

Public opinion varies somewhat across polls, even when using similar question formats, reflecting measurement differences, broader national moods, and recent news events and political rhetoric.

Bottom Line: Americans have mixed opinions about optimal levels of legal immigration, with questions providing three alternatives showing no strong consistent or majority view that it should be either increased or decreased or stay the same.

Availability of Data and Confidence in Conclusions

This assessment is based on 15 questions from 8 nationally representative surveys conducted between 2025 and 2026, with a total sample size of 24,486. The availability of data on this topic is meaningful, but consistency appears limited to moderate. The prevalent use of three-part questions and fluctuations across these questions suggest a complex mix of attitudes. Because many of the questions do not present respondents with a simple binary choice, it is harder to infer a single clear direction of opinion from the full body of evidence. The evidence base is large, but the internal complexity of the measures reduces clarity. By comparison, our 2022-2024 polling data on legal immigration consists of 34 questions from 18 nationally representative surveys, with a total sample size of 38,218.

Overall Confidence: FAIR.

Policy Implications

Public attitudes toward legal immigration in 2025 point to a desire for stability over major change. The data show there is no majority support favoring increases or decreases in the current levels of legal immigration, although some evidence suggests support for increasing levels of legal immigration when question wording does not include explicit alternatives. Thus, Americans offer no clear mandate for dramatic policy shifts. The data suggest support for a measured, centrist approach that preserves current legal immigration levels. This provides policymakers with latitude to adjust or refine immigration systems incrementally, but not a mandate for major expansion or restriction.

Policymakers will need to emphasize clear communication about the goals and outcomes of changes in legal immigration policy if they are intent on building or maintaining public support.

Detailed Discussion

Americans continue to hold mixed opinions about the appropriate level of legal immigration into the United States. Public views on this issue differ at least marginally across surveys, with no consistent majority favoring either an increase or a decrease.

The Core Trend Question

One of the most frequently used, long-term measures on this topic employs a three-part question: should legal immigration be increased, decreased, or kept at the same level?

In a September 2025 survey: [1]

  • 28% of Americans said legal immigration should be increased,
  • 23% said it should be decreased, and
  • 46% said it should be kept at the present level.

These results show no strong directional preference in public opinion about changing current immigration levels.

Previous iterations of this same poll question have demonstrated notable fluctuations in recent years.

  • In 2024, the share wanting immigration decreased was above 50% (55%), marking a temporary surge in restrictionist sentiment. [2]
  • In the two years previous (2022-2023) that figure had dropped back closer to 38% and 41%.
  • But this year’s 23% “decreased” level is actually the lowest over the past four years. [1] These fluctuating results underscore the conclusion that there is no consistently strong preference for either increasing or decreasing legal immigration.

This pattern suggests that public attitudes toward legal immigration are loosely held and may be responsive to current events.

Additional polling in 2025 reinforces this picture of ambivalence and variation:

  • A January 2025 three-part question poll produced nearly identical results to the June survey referenced above, with 30% saying the U.S. allows too many legal immigrants, 24% saying the country should allow more legal immigration, and 43% saying the number is about right. [5]
  • A February 2025 poll found a modest tilt toward reduction: 44% said immigration should be decreased and 18% said it should be increased. [6]
  • Another January 2025 survey found 32% wanting legal immigration reduced and 43% wanting it kept the same. [7]
  • A September 2025 survey found the lowest "reduce" figure recorded in 2025, with just 23% wanting legal immigration reduced, 46% wanting it to remain the same, and 28% wanting it increased. [1]

The three-part question structure frequently used to measure legal immigration presents an interpretive challenge. The measure is less likely than other, binary formats to produce a clear majority sentiment, given the default alternative of keeping things as they are. The assumption is that an unknown proportion of those in the middle category may lean one way or the other if pressed.

Additionally, this format allows results to be (legitimately) grouped in different ways leading to different conclusions.  Using the June 2025 data as an example:

  • One could say 64% of Americans want legal immigration kept the same or increased, or
  • alternatively, one could say 68% want it kept the same or decreased.

Both statements are accurate, but they reflect different interpretative emphases, highlighting how public opinion on legal immigration can appear to shift depending on how data are summarized or interpreted.

Alternative Question Formats: The “Cap” Approach

A February 2025 poll used a different question format, asking whether there should be a cap on legal immigration, and if so, what level the cap should embody. The responses were distributed as follows: [8]

  • 12% said there should be a cap but with higher immigration levels allowed,
  • 14% said there should be no cap at all;
    • thus, together 26% favored higher or uncapped levels of immigration.
  • 24% said there should be a cap with reduced immigration, and
  • 10% said there should be no cap but very few or no immigrants allowed;
    • thus, together 34% favored lower immigration levels.
  • Another 17% said the current level of immigration was about right.
  • Finally, 24% either didn’t answer or were classified as “other” responses.

These results again illustrate the lack of a clear majority viewpoint on immigration levels.

A separate January 2025 poll asked respondents whether they favored or opposed increasing the level of legal immigration—a binary question asking about one policy (increasing) without explicitly offering explicit alternatives (decreasing or keeping things as they are.)

The results showed a significant positive tilt: [9]

  • 65% of registered voters said they favored increasing legal immigration, while.
  • 27% said they opposed it.

A February 2024 poll of registered voters using the same binary question format found a similar but marginally less positive result: 58% favored increasing legal immigration, while 36% opposed it. [10]

This format forces a choice between “increasing” and “oppose increasing,” and can inflate apparent support since the question may implicitly imply that increasing is the status quo or more acceptable alternative.

At the same time, with this caveat understood, the question provides an indication that Americans who may initially choose a “no change” position when offered may in fact tilt towards the positive, more immigration position when pressed.

Overall, the picture is one of continuing public ambivalence, with the center of public opinion tilting toward stability, surrounded by smaller groups advocating for change in either direction. Attitudes fluctuate across polls using similar question formats, reflecting potential differences in characteristics of the surveys as well as shifts in the broader political climate. Late 2025 data suggest the share favoring reduction may be receding, though it remains too early to identify this as a durable trend. Binary questions asking about increasing legal immigration suggest that there may be more support for increasing legal immigration than revealed by the three part question.

Citations

  1. Associated Press/NORC at the University of Chicago/NORC at the University of Chicago. (2025). About half of the public believe the level of legal immigration to the U.S. should remain the same. Fielded 9/11/25-9/15/25. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  2. Gallup Organization. (2024). Sharply More Americans Want to Curb Immigration to U.S.. Fielded 6/3/24-6/23/24. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  3. Gallup Organization. (2022). U.S. Immigration Views Remain Mixed and Highly Partisan. Fielded 7/5/22-7/26/22. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  4. Gallup Organization. (2023). Americans Still Value Immigration, but Have Concerns. Fielded 6/1/23-6/22/23. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  5. New York Times/Ipsos. (2025). Heading into Trump's second term, Americans are deeply divided. Fielded 1/2/25-1/10/25. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  6. American National Election Survey (ANES). (2025). Fielded 11/7/24-2/17/25.
  7. Associated Press/AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (2025). US adults want border security action but mostly oppose arrests in schools, churches. Fielded 1/9/25-1/13/25. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  8. NPR/Ipsos. (2025). Muted support for recent immigration crackdowns. Fielded 2/7/25-2/10/25. Accessed via Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.
  9. Wall Street Journal/GBAO/WSJ/Fabrizio Lee. (2025). WSJ_JAN25. Fielded 1/9/25-1/14/25.
  10. Wall Street Journal/GBAO/WSJ/Fabrizio Lee. (2024). Wall Street Journal: February 21 – 28, 2024. Fielded 2/21/24-2/28/24.

Related Polling Data

Back to Top