Half of all Americans, including 42 percent of Democrats, now say that they would support mass deportations, according to a poll released on Thursday.
The Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll also found that 30 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of Republicans say they would end birthright citizenship.
Trump recently promised to carry out the "largest domestic deportation operation in American history" if he is reelected.
"Americans are open to former President Trump's harshest immigration plans, spurred on by a record surge of illegal border crossings and a relentless messaging war waged by Republicans," Axios reported. "President Biden is keenly aware the crisis threatens his re-election. He's sought to flip the script by accusing Trump of sabotaging Congress' most conservative bipartisan immigration bill in decades."
The report adds, "But when it comes to blame, Biden so far has failed to shift the narrative: 32% of respondents say his administration is 'most responsible' for the crisis, outranking any other political or structural factor." SHOCK POLL.🚨
More than half of all Americans — including 42% of DEMOCRATS — say they'd support MASS DEPORTATION of Illegal Aliens.
Over two-thirds of Republicans support the policy and nearly half of Independents.
45% of Latinos support the mass deportation policy, as well as… pic.twitter.com/qM0pwdIrkK
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) April 25, 2024
Nearly two-thirds of the respondents told the pollsters that "illegal immigration is a real crisis, not a politically driven media narrative."
Mark Penn, chairman of The Harris Poll and a former pollster for President Bill Clinton, told the outlet, "I was surprised at the public support for large-scale deportations."
"I think they're just sending a message to politicians: 'Get this under control,' " Penn said, adding that it is a "warning to Biden" that "efforts to shift responsibility for the issue to Trump are not going to work."
The poll found that Americans are far more welcoming of legal immigrants than illegal border jumpers, with 68 percent saying illegal immigration "causes major problems in communities." Just 27 percent said the same about legal immigration.
Penn concluded, "The tradeoff here in the poll is, people would take expanded legal immigration if they saw there's a crackdown on the border."
