More Americans support Trump’s birthright citizenship rollback than oppose it, new poll reveals
More Americans are in favor of President Donald Trump’s attempt to curb birthright citizenship than are against it, a new poll reveals, as presidential approval is improving post-inauguration.
The controversial executive order issued by Trump at the inauguration aims to end birthright citizenship for children of migrants, who are in the US on temporary visas or illegally. The move has already faced lawsuits from dozens of states and affected parties.
Yet a new poll from Emerson College post-inauguration, carried out from 27 to 28 January, shows 45 per cent of Americans support Trump’s efforts to roll back birthright citizenship for children of undocumented migrants.
By comparison, just 37 per cent oppose the change, while a substantially high 19 per cent are neutral or have no opinion.
The poll of 1,000 registered US voters has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points, and is weighted to represent a mix of party, gender, race, education, age, and region.
Unsurprisingly there are trends among party lines; but some support comes from all ends of the political spectrum. A majority of Republicans, 69%, support ending birthright citizenship, compared to 25% of Democrats and 38% of independents.
Those in the South were the most likely to support removing birthright citizenship for children of undocumented migrants (51 per cent).
Among all ethnicities, Latino respondents were the most in opposition to the proposed change (42 per cent); yet a comparatively high number also supported the change (39 per cent).
Nonetheless, the clear majority of Americans (56 percent) support the pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants, with just 24 per cent in opposition.
When it comes to other immigration topics, Americans are more divided.
People are split on allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to conduct searches in schools and churches after Trump repealed a 2011 policy which protected those areas.
Slightly more Americans are against these raids (44 per cent) than would allow them (41 per cent).
Overall, the data suggests the American public is feeling slightly more optimistic following President Trump’s entering office.
A small majority (52 per cent) of voters believe that the US is heading in the right direction, compared to being on the wrong track (48 per cent).
