LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Americans are deeply divided about President Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That is the finding of a new NPR/Ipsos poll out today. The poll shows growing support for stronger restrictions on immigration. But at the same time, many of the president’s hard-line policies are unpopular with big parts of the public.
FADEL: So to talk about these findings, we’re joined by NPR’s Joel Rose. Hey, Joel.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Hey, Leila.
FADEL: So what stands out to you from these poll results?
ROSE: The results are kind of a mixed bag. On the one hand, we do see support for tougher restrictions – for example, President Trump’s call for mass deportations of all immigrants in the U.S. without legal status. That was one of his big campaign promises. We see a plurality of Americans support that – 44% in favor to 42% against. But when you dig down into the details of how that might be accomplished, that support erodes pretty quickly. I talked to Mallory Newall. She’s a vice president at Ipsos, which conducted this poll. Here is her take on what is happening.
MALLORY NEWALL: While Americans, on the whole, may be more supportive of immigration restrictions in theory, in practice, there’s still not a lot of agreement about what that looks like.
ROSE: Take some of the more hard-line Trump administration proposals – for example, detaining migrants at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba – as we were just discussing – or allowing immigration authorities to make arrests in schools and churches. Those proposals still have a lot of support from Republicans, but they were broadly unpopular in this poll with Democrats and even with many independents.
FADEL: So, Joel, you also did some follow-up interviews with poll respondents. What did they say?
ROSE: Yeah. This NPR/Ipsos poll shows that Republicans, for the most part, are very united in support of the president’s crackdown. Four out of 5 support deporting all immigrants without legal status. Three out of 4 support denying federal funding to sanctuary cities that limit their cooperation with immigration authorities. And a big majority of Republicans say the U.S. has been experiencing an invasion at the southern border.
I talked to Thomas Dunkelberger. He is a longtime Republican voter from Holland, Michigan.
THOMAS DUNKELBERGER: So as far as I’m concerned, that was an invasion – not an armed invasion, certainly, but it was an invasion. That’s got to stop. We can’t afford it as a people. The people didn’t vote for that.
ROSE: Democrats, on the other hand, are opposed to basically all of President Trump’s immigration crackdown, but especially his push to end birthright citizenship for children of immigrants who do not have permanent legal status in the U.S. Democrats also are opposed to challenging sanctuary cities, and they don’t like a proposal to allow the U.S. military to make arrests and deport migrants. Some of these proposals are being challenged in federal court, including the proposal on birthright citizenship, which is blocked, at least for now.
FADEL: Now, you’ve been doing polls like this since the first Trump administration, so put it in context for us. What interesting shifts have you seen on the issue?
ROSE: Yeah. I think there are a couple of things that stand out. Take the border wall, for example. We started asking in 2018 about expanding the wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, and back then, only 38% of Americans supported that. Now it’s up to nearly half. At the same time, we have seen a steady erosion of support for DREAMers. These are immigrants without legal status who were brought to the country as children. When we first started asking, almost two-thirds of poll respondents favored a path to legal status for DREAMers. In our most recent poll, that support fell below 50% for the first time.
FADEL: Interesting.
ROSE: Yeah. Those are some significant shifts, and I think they do tell you something about the mood in the country right now.
FADEL: NPR’s Joel Rose. Thank you, Joel.
ROSE: You’re welcome.
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