Pro-migration activists are skewing polls to hide Americans’ growing support for the deportation of illegal migrants.
An August-to-September survey by the PRRI, and funded by George Soros’s pro-migration Open Society network, pushed support down to 47 percent by asking a loaded question about military “encampments”:
How much do you strongly favor, favor, oppose, or strongly oppose the following? … Rounding up and deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally, even if it takes setting up encampments guarded by the U.S. military.
“That’s a push poll,” said Jon Feere, a former border enforcement official who now works with the Center for Immigration Studies. “If you ask the questions different ways, the numbers will fluctuate a little bit based on the word choice,” he told Breitbart News, but noted:
People are desperate to see our immigration laws enforced, so no matter how a pollster words it, they’re going to find a huge percentage of people want our immigration laws to be implemented by any means necessary.
The answer in the PRRI poll was 47 percent in favor, including 22 percent “strongly” favor, versus 50 percent oppose, including 22 percent strongly oppose.
Many polls show growing support for deportations when the questions are not skewed.
In mid-October, YouGov asked 1,615 Americans: “Would you support or oppose the following? …Arresting and deporting millions of illegal immigrants.”
Fifty-four percent said yes, including 38 percent who said they “strongly” favor “deporting millions.” Just 34 percent oppose, including 25 percent who “strongly” oppose the deportations.
Fox News mid-October poll of 1,11o registered voters showed 67 percent support for deportations when it asked:
Please tell me whether you favor or oppose each of the following policy ideas related to immigration and border security … Deporting immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home countries:
The Fox News poll matches recent polls by Ipsos, Marist, YouGov, and Harvard-Harris. Those polls show almost two-to-one support for enforcing the nation’s existing border laws that protect American strivers and families from poor migrants and from employers who cheat by hiring cheap foreign labor.
Also, pollsters rarely ask questions that are tuned to show higher support for enforcement or ask questions when they know the result will be pro-enforcement, said Feere. He added:
There’s never any polling out there on sanctuary jurisdictions or sanctuary policies. The last time it happened, it was in 2015 by UC Berkeley, and it was an amazing poll just of Californians. Overwhelmingly, 74 percent of Californians opposed sanctuary policies.
But they haven’t asked the question again and the reason, in my mind, is that they haven’t found a way to tinker with the question, whereas they still think there’s a way to tinker with questions on deportations, detentions, and amnesty, to skew responses with certain word choices.
They’ve avoided the sanctuary question because they can’t come up with a way to tinker with the wording and the public responses are clear — high opposition to sanctuary jurisdictions.
Similarly, most of the groups that commission immigration polls want to get a result that matches their goals. This means few pollsters are paid to get the most accurate results by asking multiple questions about immigration.
One exception is a September poll by YouGov, which asked 20 questions about migration. The questions show strong and somewhat responses, as well as “not sure” responses.
That poll showed 58 percent support for “Using active-duty troops to help with arrests along the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Seventy-nine percent favored “Using the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrant gang members, drug dealers, and cartel members.”
Twenty-six percent supported “Ending all immigration to the U.S.”
Sixty percent favor “Banning apprehended immigrants from being released into the U.S. while they await court hearings.”
Fifty-one percent favor “Arresting and deporting thousands of illegal immigrants.” Twenty-one percent “strongly opposed” the deportations.
If Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, investor groups will fight deportations using their networks of pro-migration groups, based experts, and left-wing journalists.
The battle is already underway. For example, A CBS News report on October 17 was headlined “Trump’s plan to deport millions of immigrants would cost hundreds of billions, CBS News analysis shows.”
In response, supporters of pro-American immigration laws say many migrants will choose to go home, many can be sent home quickly, and many state and cities will use their police to send migrants home. They also argue that deporting migrants home will free up jobs and housing for Americans. That shift would reduce welfare and aid spending on poor migrants and unemployed Americans.
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