Who Gets to Come In? How Political Engagement Shapes Views on Legal Immigration

This study examines how political engagement shapes public attitudes toward legal immigration in the United States. We use nationally weighted data from the 2024 ANES Pilot Study, constructing a novel Political Engagement Index (PAX) based on five civic actions: discussing politics, online sharing, attending rallies, wearing political symbols, and campaign volunteering. Higher engagement predicts greater support for easing legal immigration, even after adjusting for education, gender, age, partisanship, income, urban residence, and generalized social trust. Subgroup analyses by partisanship show consistent directionality, with notable shifts among Republicans. Social trust and education are also consistently associated with more open attitudes. These findings suggest that a cumulative increase in political participation is associated with support for legal immigration in shaping public attitudes toward legal immigration pathways, with varying intensity across partisan identities and socio-demographic characteristics.