Over 60 percent of Independents believe that we should deport most or all illegal immigrants currently present in the United States, a recent poll found.
The poll from Reuters/Ipsos found that a solid majority of independents are in favor of the policy, with 61 percent indicating that they believe the United States should deport illegal immigrants. The policy garnered the support of an even larger share of registered Republicans, 85 percent of whom said they are in favor of deporting most or all of the illegal immigrants present in the United States.
Mass deportations have become a key campaign promise from former Republican President Donald Trump and his allies have set out to craft executive orders and policies to prepare for a wider immigration crackdown.
Registered Democrats were the only group that said they were not in favor of deporting illegal immigrants with only 26 percent saying that they support the policy. Though the deportation of illegal immigrants appears to have wide public support, the poll also found that just over half of respondents, 54 percent, oppose the use of detention facilities for illegal immigrants ahead of their deportation.
The poll, which was conducted online and sampled 3,208 registered voters across the country, is one of many recent public opinion surveys addressing immigration that could spell trouble for incumbent President Joe Biden.
One poll found that only 36 percent of voters approve of Biden’s performance on immigration while another poll found that a majority of Americans support increasing deportations, building a wall on the southern border, and penalizing businesses that hire illegal immigrants.
The Democrat incumbent has presided over an unprecedented crisis on the southern border, with over 9.5 million nationwide encounters and 1.7 million estimated illegal immigrant gotaways recorded under his term. Now voters have indicated that they trust Trump to handle immigration more than they trust Biden, and only 20 percent say that they believe that the United States currently has control over its own borders.
Even illegal crossings at the northern border spiked to a new record in 2023, and the data from the 2024 fiscal year reveal that the United States is on track to see an even higher number of illegal northern border crossings this year. America’s foreign-born population has also increased by 6.6 million in the 39 months of Biden’s presidency, with the surge being driven primarily by illegal immigration.