Most Americans disagree with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump’s radical proposal to build a wall along the USA-Mexico border and don’t support his idea of deporting all illegal immigrants. However, they are divided on Trump’s proposal to put a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US from other countries, a new survey finds.
The Associated Press reports that Trump’s visions on the said ban might win some Americans over to his side.
On the idea of building a border wall, some 6 out of 10 Americans are opposed to it, while 4 in 10 are for it, the Associated Press-GfK poll reported. Similarly, 6 out of 10 Americans are in favor of finding a way to make illegal immigrants US citizens, while 4 in 10 don’t agree.
Among political parties, 76% of Democrats and 44% of Republicans agree that there should be a method to provide illegal immigrants with citizenship. Among Trump’s supporters, just 38% are in favor of the same. 67% of Republicans and 21% of Democrats are in favor of building a wall, while 75% of Trump’s following support the suggestion.
Trump’s most likely rival, Hillary Clinton, has blasted his vocal proposals on the border wall and banning Muslims entry as dangerous.
The survey also reports that 75% of Latinos, 66% of African-Americans and over half of whites are in favor of the path to citizenship. 48% of whites, 26% of blacks and 16% of Latinos support the border wall.
On another issue, Americans are slightly more likely to disagree with a temporary ban on non-US citizen Muslims from entering the country by 52% to a 45% in favor of. This has been a consistent number in AP-GfK polls carried out in 2016.
The same survey says that 69% of Republicans support the Muslim ban while 68% of Democrats oppose it. Half of whites and just one-third of non-whites support the ban, and 76% of Trump’s supporters are in favor of it.
While in Scotland last month, Trump shifted his stance, saying that he now wants “terrorists out” of the USA, and in order to accomplish this, would limit people entering from “specific terrorist countries and we know what those terrorist countries are.”
The AP survey shows that this shift in rhetoric could win Trump more support. Among those polled on a broad temporary ban on immigrants from countries with a history of terrorism against the US and its allies, 63% voiced support for it and 34% opposed it. 94% of Trump’s supporters favored the proposal, along with 45% of Clinton’s supporters.
Over half of Americans, 53% to be exact, think that the country is letting in too many Syrian refugees. Syria has been at civil war since 2011, and serves as the Islamic State’s de facto headquarters. President Barack Obama promised to admit around 100,000 Syrian refugees this year.
Another 33% think the numbers are just about right, while 11% want to let more refugees in. 4 in 10 Americans think there is a high risk that refuges will commit acts of religious or political violence in the country, 34% think the risk is moderate and 24% consider it a low risk.
Among Republicans, 76% think the US should allow fewer refugees in. 43% of Democrats think current numbers are right, 38% think the country should allow fewer refugees in and 18% want to allow more in.
The AFP-Gfk Poll was conducted online and had 1,009adult participants, using a sample taken from GfK’s probability-based Knowledge Panel, which was created to represent US population. The margin of sampling error for all survey respondents is plus or minus 3.3% points.
Respondents were selected randomly using telephone and mail survey methods, then interviewed later online.
