The way baby boomers look at immigration reform efforts differs from millennials, and a new Pew Research Center report dissect just how bid a gap it is.

As of March, nearly three-quarters of people born after 1980 believe immigrants are an asset to the United States, compared to just 48 percent of post-World War II babies. Generational differences have grown since the mid-90s when about 63 percent of the overall population saw undocumented immigration negatively.

"Beginning around 2006, however, they began to diverge," wrote study author Bradley Jones. "In October that year, the partisan gap between Republicans and Democrats grew to 15 percentage points. Since then, the share of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents saying that immigrants strengthen the country steadily increased, from 49% to 78% now, while the share with this view among Republicans and Republican leaners has shown little change."

Generation Gap on Border Security

There is general bipartisan support allowing undocumented individuals a legal pathway to residence. For older, conservative Americans, this means blocking a pathway to U.S. citizenship and restructuring the U.S.-Mexico border wall, as Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz proposed. Just 13 percent of Democrats approve.

Boomers (43 percent) and those from the silent generation (47 percent) -- a demographic of people born pre-1940 -- comprise most supporters. Currently, 63 percent of right-leaning voters want the wall built.

"Since 2013, majorities of both Democrats and Republicans have said that undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. should be allowed to stay in this country legally," Jones wrote. "But partisan differences on this issue have increased as well."

Trump and Public Opinion

Trump vows to strengthen the border wall at Mexico's expense, estimated somewhere between $10 billion and $25 billion. Eight-four percent of Republicans backing Trump specifically do so because of this one campaign promise.

As auspicious a proposal this is, Jones notes that the plan "is favored by only about a third of the public (34%) while 62% are opposed." About 83 percent of liberal voters opposing construction favor Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton; over 90 percent support Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

A recent Field Poll survey of likely California primary voters found Trump leads Cruz seven percentage points; Ohio Gov. John Kasich places third with 18 percent. The same poll conducted in January had Cruz up by two percent.

Trump's policies will be a prevalent topic in the next two months heading into the California election, given that the Golden State houses the country's largest Latino population and Latino, in general, hold an unfavorable view of the Republican front-runner.