Poll: No surge in support for lower immigration levels

Voter support for decreasing immigration into the U.S. is little changed since last year, despite the issue coming to the forefront of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign, according to a Gallup survey released Wednesday.

{mosads}Thirty-eight percent want immigration into the country to be decreased, while 38 percent want it kept steady and 21 percent want it increased, the poll found.

Compared with the same poll a year ago, demand for decreased immigration is up 4 percentage points, while calls for increased immigration is down 4 points. Support for immigration to be kept steady is down 2 points.

Gallup conducted its poll of 3,270 adults via telephone interviews from June 7 to July 1. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Gallup noted that its questions did not specify whether it was talking about legal or illegal immigration.

Trump has made strengthening border security and dealing with illegal immigration central parts of his message. He called for a wall to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border and spoke about immigrants in harsh terms.

On Tuesday, the GOP nominee voiced openness to easing immigration laws if the circumstances were right for America.

“There certainly can be a softening, because we’re not looking to hurt people,” he told Fox News’s Sean Hannity.