Gallup: 51 percent of Americans support accepting Central American migrants

Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Slightly more than half of Americans are more likely to approve of letting Central American refugees into the United States, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.

The survey found that 51 percent of Americans supported allowing the so-called caravan of thousands of migrants mostly from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua to seek asylum in the United States, while 43 percent were opposed.

It was only the second time dating back to 1939 that the majority of respondents to a Gallup poll were in support of the United States accepting refugees. The other came in 1999 when hundreds of people from Kosovo arrived seeking to flee a conflict between ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs along with the government of Yugoslavia.

On average, 39 percent of Americans have opposed taking in refugees while 55 percent have opposed in these situations, including the migrant caravan and refugees from Europe during World War II.

Results of the poll differed widely along partisan lines, as 82 percent of Democrats supported allowing the Central American refugees to enter the country, versus 14 percent of Republicans. Independents were more split on the issue, with 52 percent saying they support the refugees.

The poll, was conducted through telephone surveys of 1,025 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and Washington D.C., from Dec. 3 - Dec. 12.

Results featured a 4 percent margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level.