---
title: "Immigration Issue"
description: "Fewer than a third of Latinos rate immigration an “extremely important” issue."
date: "2009-02-06"
authors:
  - name: "Russell Heimlich"
    job_title: "Former web developer"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/russell-heimlich/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2009/02/06/immigration-issue/"
---

# Immigration Issue

While Latinos are by far the nation’s biggest immigrant group, only about three-in-ten (31%) say immigration is an “extremely important” issue facing the Obama administration, ranking it sixth on a list of seven policy priorities. Like the American public overall, Hispanic cite the economy as the most pressing issue for the new administration; 57% say it is an extremely important issue. Education ranks second on the list of priorities, the only other issue that a majority of Latinos considered extremely important. Immigration has never been a top issue for Hispanics. Even at the apex of the congressional debate over immigration reform in 2007, however, the issue never rose to the top of Latinos’ priority list. [Read More](https://www.pewresearch.org/pubs/1081/hispanics-and-the-new-administration-immigration-slips-as-a-priority)