Support for the wall is growing, still a minority (.pdf)

In the past year, the percentage of Americans approving the wall has increased from 34% to 42%. Assuming 250 million Americans of voting age, that means Trump managed, in the past year, to convince an additional 20 million eligible voters to support his position.

Among college-educated voters, support for the wall rose 13 points, from 30% to 43%. That means that college-educated voters are now slightly more likely to support the wall than those without degrees. The opposite was true last year.

“Strong” opposition to the wall has declined significantly, from 52 percent last January to 38 percent now.

———–

Mind you, these findings still show that the majority of Americans oppose the wall. (54-42, with 4 undecided).

It’s also worth noting that the majority of Americans blame Trump for the shutdown. About twice as many blame Trump as blame the Democrats. (53-29, with the other 18% either in the “don’t know” or “both” camps).

Americans overwhelmingly reject Trump’s depiction of the border situation as a “crisis.” Only 24% agree with that. On the other hand, another 48% call it a serious problem, so almost 3/4 of Americans believe that the border situation is a serious problem or worse. (The rest are either undecided or in the “not a serious problem” camp.)

6 thoughts on “Support for the wall is growing, still a minority (.pdf)

  1. Illegal immigration is just another invented narrative by the rich Republican establishment to assert authority and get people to argue with each other, while they cut taxes or set up crooked private contracts with their rich donors. It’s right out of the ‘1984’ playbook. One week it’s ISIS, then North Korea, then the budget, and now this.

    Illegal immigrants end up paying more taxes than they receive, make lower wages than anyone else, commit less crimes than anyone else, and more come over LEGALLY and overstay expired visas than come over the border. And virtually none of the drugs entering this country come over border crossings. These are all established facts, no matter what eight figure salary propagandist on Fox News says.

    100% of this is on Trump and the Republicans. The people involved in the shutdown have absolutely nothing to do with Trump’s idiotic wall, and the resolution to reopen the government alone is being blocked by the Republicans, period. The Senate had already PASSED a resolution to keep the government open before Trump’s tantrum.

    Saying the Democrats refuse to negotiate is like double parking in front of someone and refusing to move unless you give them $50. Well, you’re not even offering me $20, how isn’t this fair!?

    The stupidity in this country continues to astound me.

    1. Well …

      While I agree with you for the most part, Falcon, don’t lose sight of the fact that 300,000 people per year are caught and detained on the southern border trying to enter the country illegally. That’s down substantially from a high of more than a million. While that is not as big a problem as some contend, it is still a lot of people, and the process requires a lot of manpower and resources.

      (The number who succeed is unknown.)

      If Trump’s wall could stop that flow, it might well pay for itself, as he suggests.

      But in reality, things are never that simple, and walls are not that efficient.

  2. I think illegal immigration is a serious problem, but that doesnt mean I agree with Trump. There are so many problems with Trump’s immigration policies/plan it is difficult to know where to start. Because of Trump’s characterization of illegal immigrants as rapists, murderers and “bad hombres” his overly simplistic solution of building a “big beautiful wall” has become a lightning rod for opposition to Trump. No matter how tall or well constructed a wall might be, it could never solve illegal immigration if for no other reason than 40% of illegal immigrants enter the United States through airports or other ports of entry and overstay their visas.

    The fact is that while some illegal immigrants are truly bad people, the overwhelming majority are hard working and simply want a better life for their families. But they live under the constant threat of arrest and deportation which often subjects them to exploitation by unscrupulous individuals. A general amnesty was tried under President Reagan, but 30 years later we had 12 million new illegal immigrants. Unless laws and programs are put in place that will slow future illegal immigration to a trickle (at most) it will be politically impossible to grant legal status to otherwise law abiding people currently here illegally. At a minimum that will most likely require mandatory use of e-verify for all new hires, a visa tracking system, and in certain appropriate locations a border fence and/or a wall.

    If Trump truly wanted to solve the illegal immigration problem he could have offered to trade (most of) the wall and a DACA fix for things like e-verify and visa tracking system. But he is so committed to his overly simplistic solution he won’t do that. Instead we are stuck with this government shutdown. To be clear, I think most of the blame belongs to Trump. But I believe 40% of the blame belongs to the Democrats because they are refusing to negotiate a compromise. While they claim to care deeply about the fate of 800,000 federal workers not being paid (not to mention the fate approximately 12 million “undocumented” immigrants) they don’t seem to care enough to find a solution, only to keep them as a campaign issue.

  3. Your final paragraph is a bit misleading, in that it suggests an overwhelming majority of Americans reject Trump’s concerns about border security. Most do agree with him in general; it’s merely a matter of degree. If 24% agree that it’s a crisis, and another 48% believe it’s a serious problem, then that’s an overwhelming 72% who think it needs to be dealt with. Only 26% say it’s not a serious problem, and 1% say it’s not a problem at all. That’s nearly 3-1 against the dismissive view that anyone who thinks illegal immigration is out of control is a paranoid racist. Democrats misread this poll at their peril.

    1. It sounds like you have selective reading comprehension. This line from the last paragraph alone contradicts your complaint about Scoopy’s post:
      “so almost 3/4 of Americans believe that the border situation is a serious problem or worse.”
      You sound like someone who cries “Fake news!” at real news that isn’t phrased in a way that satisfies your personal desires.

      And it doesn’t change the fact that the majority of Americans do NOT support Trump’s banshee cry for a massive wall on the southern border. In fact there really hasn’t been any polling in the history of our country that indicates otherwise.

Comments are closed.