Thousands of unaccompanied children from Central America have illegally crossed the Mexican border into the United States since October creating an immigration crisis that has been prominently displayed on the news over the past several months.

Voters are split over how to view the border crisis: some consider it a national security issue, and others see it mostly as an immigration issue. Democrats lean more toward seeing it as an immigration issue, while Republicans are more likely to take the opposite view. No matter how you view it, what can be done about it?

 According to a Fox News poll, voters prefer an immigration reform plan involving a pathway to citizenship over no action at all.  Congress has thus far failed to pass any meaningful reform, and if the only action they pass is a pathway for certain illegal immigrants to remain in the country, 65 percent of those polled said they would support such action.  Only 20 percent said they would prefer Congress “do nothing at all.”

There is bipartisan support for immigration reform (76 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Republicans favor reform) but there is a great deal of difference between what the parties want to achieve.  Republicans are generally against a pathway to citizenship, but the Fox News poll suggests that they’d be willing to support it if the only alternative was doing nothing at all.  Further, voters under age 35 (73 percent) are more likely than those ages 65 and over (60 percent) to favor a pathway to citizenship.

Before leaving for the summer recess, House republicans passed two immigration bills. The bills would provide emergency funding to deal with the crisis, speed the deportations of most border-crossers and rescind President Obama’s authority to decide whether to deport certain illegal immigrants.  However, these measures are unlikely to become law, as the White House, most Democrats and immigration advocates strongly oppose the proposals.

Now that Congress is out of session we will not see any reforms until they return, but it will be interesting to see how this story develops.

See the full results of the poll here: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2014/08/14/fox-news-polls-immigration-ebola-obamacare-2014-midterm-elections/