Public support for deportation varies widely depending on what specific questions are asked, new polling reveals.
In the latest Marquette Law School poll , respondents were posed with two variations of a question about deportation.
One question asked if they supported or opposed deporting illegal immigrants in America back to their countries of origin.
In response, the majority of people, 58%, said they supported deportation, while 42% opposed it.
The other question asked respondents if they supported or opposed deporting America’s illegal immigrants “even if they have lived here for a number of years, have jobs and no criminal record?”
With this wording, 40% said they support deportation, while the majority, 60%, said they opposed it, marking a dramatically different response from the first question.
Polls and studies have shown that illegal immigrants — who make up a sliver of the labor force — have a high propensity to work and are less likely to be incarcerated than those born in the United States.
The latest poll also asked respondents about their views on illegal immigrants using a multiple choice question.
They were asked to choose which of three statements came closest to their views about the status of undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
The majority, 53%, said they support illegal immigrants being permitted to keep their jobs and allowed to apply for citizenship at some point.
A much smaller share, 18%, said they should be allowed to remain in the U.S. as guest workers with no opportunity to apply for citizenship. And 29% said they should be forced to leave their jobs and the country.
The poll, conducted between Oct. 1 and 1 0 , sampled 1,005 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. It found Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly leading former President Donald Trump, 48% to 47%, among likely voters nationwide, with 53% thinking Harris will ultimately prevail in the Nov. 5 election.
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More on immigration
The poll comes as immigration remains a top issue for voters heading into the 2024 election, which is just weeks away.
Trump, like in 2016 and 2020, has made immigration a cornerstone issue of his campaign. He has repeatedly slammed President Joe Biden and Harris for what he calls their “ open borders ” policy.
Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have dramatically increased during Biden’s tenure, reaching an all-time high of 2.2 million in 2022, according to The Washington Post.
Trump’s platform includes a plan to “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.”
Harris has criticized Trump’s deportation plan, saying on Sept. 18, “ Imagine what that would look like and what that would be. How is that going to happen? Massive raids? Massive detention camps?”
Her platform states that, if elected, she would revive the “bipartisan border security bill,” which failed to pass in Congress after Republican lawmakers opposed it — and were encouraged to do so by Trump.
The bill would have increased the number of Border Patrol agents, funded operations to combat drug trafficking, and sped up the asylum process.
The Marquette Law School poll found Trump leads Harris, 51% to 36%, over who voters say would better handle issues surrounding immigration and border security.
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