Polling numbers gathered just before the government shutdown show nearly half of Americans believe immigration is a top priority for congress this year.
The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found 49 percent of Americans list immigration as one of their top five problems facing the new Congress, along with the economy, health care, politics and the environment.
But there's still deep political division on how to fix it.
“For Republicans, the biggest priority is securing the border and enforcing our immigration laws,” says Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. “For Democrats, their priority is an amnesty for people with DACA.”
“But I don't really think there is much difference in opinion for most Americans on border security itself.”
Vaughan doesn't have much confidence in Washington to fix immigration.
“Unless there is even more of a crisis at the border or some horrific event that forces Congress to put aside partisan differences and actually fix some of the more broken parts of our system,” she says.
And she says any executive orders issued by the president will likely be challenged.