Approval is growing for some parts of President Donald Trump's restrictions on immigration, but not for some of the more dramatic moves in his administration's policy, a new NPR/Ipsos poll shows.
The 1,013 people surveyed from Feb. 7-10 shows Americans support the president's push for mass deportations of immigrants living in the United States without legal status, and they are coming to approve plans to expand wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border, reports NPR on Friday.
But other actions, such as calling to end birthright citizenship, the detainment of migrants at Guantanamo Bay, and allowing arrests of immigrants in schools and churches, were found to be widely unpopular by Democrats and independents, but approved by Republicans.
"Americans on the whole may be more supportive of immigration restrictions in theory, [but] there's still not a lot of agreement on what that looks like," Mallory Newall, a vice president at Ipsos, commented.
The poll showed that 23% of the respondents think immigration is a top issue, coming in several points behind their major concern, inflation, and increasing costs, at 47%.
But more Republicans, at 47% said immigration is a top issue, as compared with 19% of independents and 9% of Democrats.
Meanwhile, almost 1 in 3 poll respondents said restrictions on immigration "go too far" while 29% said the restrictions do not go far enough.
Republicans remained united behind the Trump administration's agenda on immigration, the poll shows:
- 75% support denying federal funds to sanctuary cities.
- Nearly as many back using the military to arrest and detain immigrations who do not have legal status.
- Four out of 5 support deporting all immigrants without legal status, and call the record numbers of migrants at the border an invasion.
The poll also showed that Trump's push to end birthright citizenship is widely unpopular, with less than a third supporting the plan.
Plans to detain immigrants at the U.S. naval station in Guantanamo Bay were also not popular, with 36% of respondents in the survey approving. The idea was more popular with Republicans than Democrats.
The poll also showed shifts in public opinion over time:
- In 2018, only 38% of Americans supported building a U.S.-Mexico border wall, but almost 50% said they approved in the latest survey.
- Two-thirds of Americans in 2018 favored giving legal status to DREAMers, the immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, but the current poll shows that number has dropped to less than 50%.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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