Trump’s immigration policies get strong backing in new poll

A majority of voters gave President Trump’s immigration policies high marks, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released Monday. 

Sixty percent of voters surveyed said they support Trump’s efforts to close the border, including 89 percent of Republicans, 55 percent of independents and 34 percent of Democrats. 

Seventy-five percent of respondents also said they support the administration’s efforts to deport criminals who are in the country illegally, including 93 percent of Republicans, 70 percent of independents, and 59 percent of Democrats. 

“Huge majorities of Americans support the removal of criminals here illegally but also care about human rights and due process being observed,” the poll’s director Mark Penn said. 

The same poll found that voters were divided over Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement: 52 percent said the administration was “doing the right thing” in enforcing its immigration policy, while 48 percent said it is “going too far in its enforcement actions.” 

Nearly 60 percent of respondents said there needs to be more due process guaranteed hearings to prevent unfair deportations, while 41 percent said the government needs to act quickly to deport criminals from the U.S. 

The Harvard CAPS/Harris poll was conducted July 6-8 among 2,044 registered voters. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and the Harris Poll.

The survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.