Donald Trump may think it’s a smart strategy to wage an all-out assault on immigrants ahead of the 2020 campaign, but the vast majority of the country doesn’t support his inhumane immigration policies.
According to a Pew Research Center survey, 72 percent of the country supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
The poll’s findings indicate that Trump’s attack on immigrants – which we again saw during recent ICE raids in Mississippi – might appeal to his base, but the majority of the country doesn’t like what they are seeing.
More from Pew:
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Broad public support for path to legal status for undocumented immigrants. Nearly three-quarters of Americans (72%) say undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. legally if certain conditions are met. This is a modest decline from 77% in March 2017, with most of the change occurring among Republicans.
Most Americans say people who are in the U.S. illegally are no more likely than citizens to commit serious crimes. Nearly seven-in-ten (69%) say this. Large majorities also say undocumented immigrants mostly fill the jobs that American citizens don’t want (77%) and are as honest and hardworking as American citizens (73%).
As many agree with the Republican Party as with the Democratic Party on illegal immigration. Among the public overall, 40% say they agree with the Democratic Party’s policies on illegal immigration and 39% agree with the GOP’s positions; 19% don’t agree with either party on this issue. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to agree with their own party on illegal immigration.
The country doesn’t stand with Trump on his top issue
From top to bottom, Donald Trump’s immigration policies – which he has made the centerpiece of his reelection campaign – are incredibly unpopular with everybody who doesn’t show up at his MAGA rallies.
As the poll shows, large majorities of the country believe in a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, not Trump’s policy of deportation and family separation. Most Americans also (correctly) believe that undocumented immigrants are no more likely to commit crimes than American citizens.
Overall, the country is no more likely to agree with Republicans on this issue than they are with Democrats. In other words, voters haven’t bought into the fear that Trump and his GOP loyalists have been pedaling surrounding immigrants.
That should concern the president as he marches toward 2020 hoping to make his immigration policies the top campaign issue.
Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
