By Canadian Press

Voters split over how to secure US from illegal immigration

Jul 18, 2016 | 3:25 PM

WASHINGTON — Most Americans reject Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and his support for deporting those in the country illegally. But they’re divided on the presumptive Republican nominee’s proposed temporary ban on the entry of Muslims from other countries, a new survey finds.

The poll shows Trump’s shifting rhetoric on that ban might win some Americans over.

When it comes to Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the Mexican border, about 6 in 10 Americans oppose the idea while 4 in 10 are for it, the new Associated Press-GfK poll indicated.

Similarly, 6 in 10 Americans favour providing a way for immigrants who are in the country illegally to become U.S. citizens, while about 4 in 10 are opposed.

Seventy-six per cent of Democrats, along with 44 per cent of Republicans, favour a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. Among Trump’s supporters, just 38 per cent are in favour of a path to citizenship. Sixty-seven per cent of Republicans and just 21 per cent of Democrats favour a border wall. Three-quarters of Trump’s supporters favour that proposal.

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Trump’s likely rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, has cast his calls for the border wall and temporary foreign Muslims ban as dangerous.

Trump supporter Marile Womack, 79, of Debary, Florida, adamantly favours the border wall. No one else “had the guts to do it,” she said. But the daughter of Austrian immigrants isn’t opposed to immigration from any country so long as it’s done legally.

“I don’t favour banning immigrants, but I am for investigating them before they come,” she said.

In contrast, Mark Wecker, a car salesman from Redding, California, called a border wall stupid, because “it’s a lot of money and it’s not going to keep them out if they want to get in.”

Three-quarters of Latinos, two-thirds of African-Americans and more than half of whites favour providing a path to citizenship. Forty-eight per cent of whites, 26 per cent of blacks and just 16 per cent of Latinos favour a border wall.

Daniella Gil, a stay-at-home-mom from Cornelius, Oregon, who is the daughter of Mexican immigrants, said, “We should be focusing on the violence coming from Syria as opposed to Hispanics jumping the border.”

She said she supports immigration from any country so long as it’s done legally.

Americans are slightly more likely to oppose than favour a temporary ban on Muslims who are not U.S. citizens from entering the United States, by a 52 per cent to 45 per cent margin that has been strikingly consistent in AP-GfK polls conducted this year.

Sixty-nine per cent of Republicans say they favour the temporary ban on Muslim immigration, while 68 per cent of Democrats are opposed. Half of whites and just a third of non-whites say they favour the ban. Seventy-six per cent of Trump supporters are in favour.

On a trip to Scotland last month, Trump shifted his rhetoric, saying he would instead “want terrorists out” of the U.S., and to do so, he would limit people’s entry from “specific terrorist countries and we know who those terrorist countries are.”

The poll indicates that rhetorical shift could win support. Among those asked more broadly about a temporary ban on immigrants from areas of the world where there is a history of terrorism against the U.S. or its allies, 63 per cent are in favour and 34 per cent opposed. Ninety-four per cent of Trump supporters say they favour this proposal, as do 45 per cent of Clinton supporters.

“That’s a necessity for creating stability,” said Ryan Williams, 40, a health care provider from Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Most Americans — 53 per cent — think the United States is currently letting in too many refugees from Syria, engulfed in civil war since 2011 and the Islamic State militant group’s de facto centre. President Barack Obama has pledged to admit some 10,000 Syrian refugees this year.

Another 33 per cent think the current level is about right, while just 11 per cent want to let in more. About 4 in 10 think there’s a very or somewhat high risk of refugees committing acts of religious or political violence in the United States, 34 per cent think the risk moderate, and 24 per cent consider it very or somewhat low.

Seventy-six per cent of Republicans think the U.S. should allow fewer refugees. Among Democrats, 43 per cent think the current level is about right, 38 per cent think the U.S. should allow fewer, and 18 per cent want to allow more.

Said Gil, the stay-at-home mom from Oregon, “Some of those people are innocent kids.”

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The AP-GfK Poll of 1,009 adults was conducted online July 7-11, using a sample drawn from GfK’s probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Respondents were first selected randomly using telephone or mail survey methods and later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn’t have access to the Internet were provided access for free.

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Online:

Poll results: http://ap-gfkpoll.com

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Follow Vivian Salama and Emily Swanson on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/vmsalama and http://twitter.com/EL_Swan

Emily Swanson And Vivian Salama, The Associated Press