Nine months into President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign, registered voters largely support the idea of removing immigrants who have arrived in the country illegally, even as majorities say they feel his methods have gone too far, according to the latest survey from The New York Times and Siena University.
Since Trump returned to power, his administration has enacted a new travel ban; sought to pull temporary humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of people; flown immigrants to countries where they are not from; and deployed federal law enforcement officers to Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other major cities in a show of force to combat crime and illegal immigration.
In that time, the share of registered voters who favour deporting immigrants living in the country illegally -- 54% -- has remained unchanged.
More than 90% of Republicans, 52% of independents and nearly 20% of Democrats continue to broadly support the idea of deporting those here illegally.
More specifically, 51% said they thought the government was deporting mostly people who "should be deported," while 42% said the government was deporting the wrong people.
At the same time, the public appears to be wrestling with the Trump administration's aggressive immigration tactics and how mass deportation has been carried out in practice.
More than half of voters, 53%, think the process of deporting people has not been fair; 44% said it was mostly fair.
A similar share -- 52% -- disapprove of Trump's handling of immigration; 46% approve. And 51% said his actions around immigration enforcement had gone too far.
In the Trump era, it is has not been uncommon for people to hold what can seem to be contradictory views of the president's agenda. On issues like crime, tariffs and immigration, voters largely support the aims in concept but believe that in practice, Trump's actions go too far.
A small but substantial share of voters -- roughly 15% -- really embody that dissonance when it comes to immigration. They exist in the complicated middle, saying they are broadly in favour of deportation but believe that Trump's administration has been unfair or has gone too far.
These voters are much more likely to identify as Democrats than Republicans. They largely disapprove specifically of Trump's job performance on immigration, but they also see a need for increased immigration enforcement.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Since Trump returned to power, his administration has enacted a new travel ban; sought to pull temporary humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of people; flown immigrants to countries where they are not from; and deployed federal law enforcement officers to Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other major cities in a show of force to combat crime and illegal immigration.
In that time, the share of registered voters who favour deporting immigrants living in the country illegally -- 54% -- has remained unchanged.
More than 90% of Republicans, 52% of independents and nearly 20% of Democrats continue to broadly support the idea of deporting those here illegally.
More specifically, 51% said they thought the government was deporting mostly people who "should be deported," while 42% said the government was deporting the wrong people.
At the same time, the public appears to be wrestling with the Trump administration's aggressive immigration tactics and how mass deportation has been carried out in practice.
More than half of voters, 53%, think the process of deporting people has not been fair; 44% said it was mostly fair.
A similar share -- 52% -- disapprove of Trump's handling of immigration; 46% approve. And 51% said his actions around immigration enforcement had gone too far.
In the Trump era, it is has not been uncommon for people to hold what can seem to be contradictory views of the president's agenda. On issues like crime, tariffs and immigration, voters largely support the aims in concept but believe that in practice, Trump's actions go too far.
A small but substantial share of voters -- roughly 15% -- really embody that dissonance when it comes to immigration. They exist in the complicated middle, saying they are broadly in favour of deportation but believe that Trump's administration has been unfair or has gone too far.
These voters are much more likely to identify as Democrats than Republicans. They largely disapprove specifically of Trump's job performance on immigration, but they also see a need for increased immigration enforcement.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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