One in five U.S. voters say immigration critical to vote: Gallup

Twenty percent of U.S. registered voters say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on immigration, with another 60 percent saying it will be one of many important considerations they take into account, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.

Immigration is once again shaping up to be an important issue in the 2016 presidential campaign, as the federal government has been unable to pass a comprehensive reform bill.

It already has been one of the more discussed issues this year, in large part because the Republican front-runner, billionaire mogul Donald Trump, has made the issue the centerpiece of his campaign, Gallup found.

Republicans' greater likelihood of saying they must agree with a candidate on immigration in order to support him or her suggests the issue should be a bigger factor in the Republican primaries than in the Democratic primaries.

Republican candidates generally place a high priority on border security and do not favor a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. But some, like Trump, go further, offering a number of additional policies to limit immigration, such as deporting all undocumented immigrants and not granting automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. whose parents are here illegally, Gallup said.

But in the general election campaign, immigration could work to the detriment of the eventual Republican Party nominee, given immigrants' and Hispanics' above-average desire for agreement with their chosen candidate on the immigration issue, coupled with their generally pro-immigration views, Gallup found.

The basic results by party do not by themselves indicate whether a more moderate candidate on immigration (such as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush or any of the Democrats), or a hard-line candidate (most notably, Trump), would be more appealing to voters for whom immigration is a make-or-break issue.

Immigration has inarguably attracted more attention than any other issue in the 2016 campaign thus far, perhaps because of its divisive nature and its complexity, particularly around how to handle the millions of immigrants living in the United States who entered illegally but in many cases have established stable and productive lives in this country.

And in a close primary or general election contest, even if it is less important than the economy and other issues, immigration could easily tilt the outcome toward one candidate or another, Gallup said. Endi