Gallup recently asked adults around the country a very simple question about immigration: Are you satisfied, or dissatisfied, with the level of immigration into the United States today? Are too many immigrants coming? Too few? Or is the number just about right?
Before giving the results, it's important to note what that number is. The U.S. awards legal permanent resident status -- a green card, which means lifetime residency plus the option of citizenship -- to about 1 million people per year, a rate Sen. Marco Rubio calls "the most generous" on Earth. In addition, the government hands out more than a half-million student and exchange visas each year, tens of thousands of refugee admissions, and about 700,000 visas to temporary workers and their families. The percentage of foreign-born people in the U.S. population is heading toward levels not seen since the period of 1890 to 1910.
So is that too much, or too little? Gallup found 47 percent of Americans believe the level of immigration should stay where it is. Thirty-nine percent want to see it decreased. And just 7 percent want it increased. The remaining 7 percent said they don't know.
Put another way, 86 percent of Americans would like immigration into this country to remain at today's level or to decrease, versus 7 percent who want to see it increase.
Given public opinion, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the bill did not become law.
Public opinion is not stopping the administration from plowing ahead with the president's decision to grant quasi-legal status, work permits and federal benefits to millions of immigrants here illegally. The recent confirmation hearings of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch showed just how determined the president is.
Early in the hearing, Sen. Sessions asked Lynch, "Who has more right to a job in this country -- a lawful immigrant who's here, a green-card holder or a citizen, or a person who entered the country unlawfully?"
It's a safe bet most Americans would say the person in the country legally should get the job before a person here illegally. But not Lynch. "I believe that the right and the obligation to work is one that's shared by everyone in this country regardless of how they came here," she answered.
Sessions went on to ask: What if an employer chose to hire a person who is in the country lawfully over an illegal immigrant covered by the president's executive action? Would the Justice Department take action against that employer? Lynch wouldn't answer.
Many aspects of public opinion favor opponents of comprehensive immigration reform and of the president's unilateral action. Yet even with that advantage, those opponents sometimes seem unable to make their case effectively. With Republicans now in control of Congress, it's an open question whether the GOP can craft legislation that moves the nation's immigration policy forward while still respecting public opinion.
Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.