From his efforts to mass deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrant youth to the forcible separation of families at the southern border to the slashing of refugee admissions to a historic low, Americans oppose impeached president Donald Trump on a number of anti-immigrant policies he’s made a key part of his administration, PRRI’s annual “American Values Survey” finds.
In just one finding, 66% of Americans say they support legalization for young immigrants, including 80% of Democrats, 72% of independents, and 45% of Republicans. Those numbers could be one explanation as to why he’s not moved to yet again try to end the successful and popular Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program before the 2020 election—because it’s a political loser for him.
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The PRRI polling, coming just 14 days before the end of voting in the 2020 election, highlights the vast unpopularity of policies that affect millions of families, including U.S. citizen children. Trump has moved on these issues not only to intentionally hurt these communities, but also for his own political gain. That appears to be backfiring, according to the new numbers.
On the issue of family separation, more than 75% of Americans oppose the policy, including 91% of Democrats, 79% of independents, and more than half of Republicans. “However, a majority of Republicans who most trust Fox News (53%) favor this immigration policy of separating children from their parents at the border,” the polling noted, “compared to 41% of Republicans who favor any other news source.
”Majorities of Americans oppose building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico (57%), compared to 42% who favor it,” the polling continued, “and oppose passing a law to prevent refugees from entering the United States (62%), compared to just over one-third who support it (36%).”
Trump couldn’t even get support in a Republican-controlled Congress for the stupid border wall that he always claimed Mexico wouldn’t pay for, so he swindled the U.S. taxpayer for it. That money theft will go before the Supreme Court next year. On refugees, Trump is seeking to slash new admissions to the U.S. to a historic low of just 15,000—a cap that the U.S. isn’t even obligated to reach. Among those refugees are Iraqis who risked their lives by assisting U.S. military but are now blocked from safety by the administration’s anti-refugee policies.
The survey also finds that 80% of Americans overall support legalization for undocumented immigrants, with 64% supporting a path to citizenship. “Support for allowing undocumented immigrants to become citizens has remained stable since 2019,” the survey continued, ”and has been remarkably consistent over the last five years.” Now let’s get a president who can actually make that happen.
“The American people have decided,” immigrant rights leader and America’s Voice founder Frank Sharry said. “Trump’s reliance on racism and xenophobia may play well in the cul-de-sac of his core supporters, but strong majorities of the American people are pro-immigrant. This is why Trump’s immigrant-bashing is costing more support than it attracts.”
