Many New Yorkers OK with ending immigration, poll says

By Tim Balk | New York Daily News

A majority of New Yorkers say the U.S. should live out welcoming words etched on the Statue of Liberty, but almost a third say the country does not need to continue welcoming any new immigrants, according to a new poll released as the state struggles with the strain of the asylum seeker crisis.

In the statewide Siena College survey, published Tuesday, the Statue of Liberty exhortation — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” — received support from 69% of voters, with 21% opposed.

And a broad, bipartisan majority of New Yorkers said assimilating immigrants into the American melting pot made the nation great, according to the poll. About as large a share of Republicans (77%) and Democrats (83%) said assimilating arrivals made the country strong.

“There’s no doubt, the vast majority of New Yorkers recognize that our country was built by immigrants from virtually every nation around the globe and assimilating immigrants has made America great,” Don Levy, director of the Siena College Research Institute, said in a statement.

The poll offered the latest slate of public opinion data as ongoing waves of migration across America’s southwestern border strain New York City, which is caring for about 60,000 asylum seekers, according to government data.

But even as the survey showed robust recognition of immigrants’ roles building the country, it also suggested a wide swath of New Yorkers would be happy to see New York’s doors shut completely to the outside.

In the poll, 30% of respondents said the U.S. no longer needs new immigrants. And a slim majority of Republicans — 51% against 46% — said America does not need new immigrants. Perhaps paradoxically, a majority of Republicans also said the U.S. should continue to live out the words in the Statue of Liberty.

Only 22% of Democrats said the U.S. does not need new immigrants, the poll found.

Observers increasingly see the migrant crisis…