Voters in several battleground states key to winning the 2020 election widely support President Trump’s newly unveiled immigration proposal spearheaded by chief adviser Jared Kushner.
What’s more, voters in seven states targeted by liberal Democrats said in a new survey that they will support the candidate who agrees with the Trump-Kushner plan to build the wall, crackdown on false asylum claims, chose skilled over unskilled immigrants and end “chain migration.”
The Zogby Analytics surveys conducted for the Federation for American Immigration Reform are the latest to show that immigration, and the crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, has become the leading issue in the early stages of the 2020 election. FAIR said that the White House plans are “overwhelmingly supported” by voters in the battleground states.
And they show that voters are in agreement with Trump’s plan to demand that Congress take action to tighten up immigration regulations, including wider use of E-Verify to check the legal status of potential workers.
The polls of voters in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, and Wisconsin were conducted to gauge support for Kushner’s reform plan announced by Trump in a mid-May Rose Garden statement.
“Our plan is pro-American, pro-immigrant, and pro-worker,” Trump said at the time.
The Kushner plan is the reform half of a White House effort that also includes a wider crackdown at the border on illegal immigrants.
Both come as the number of crossings has surged to crisis levels pushing border agencies to the brink of running out of money to handle and care for the immigrants.
Zogby Analytics found that voters are not only concerned about the crisis but will back candidates who agree with Trump-styled reforms. When asked, “Would you support or oppose a candidate in the next election who endorses most, if not all, of these concepts?” majorities in seven states said they would strongly or somewhat support:
- Pennsylvania — 55%
- Arizona — 63%
- Florida — 59%
- Michigan — 55%
- Ohio — 58%
- South Carolina — 65%
- Wisconsin — 59%
“In the run-up to the 2020 election, these polling data indicate that a full-scale effort by the White House to enact meaningful legislation that ends the current border chaos and adopt a merit-based legal immigration system would be viewed favorably by voters in the key states where the presidency and control of Congress will be decided,” said FAIR.
On the key elements of the Kushner plan unveiled by the president, the Zogby Analytics poll found:
- A majority of voters in all seven states support construction of the wall.
- Some 60% of likely voters support efforts that would “prevent migrants from making fraudulent [asylum] claims and being released into the country.”
- A majority of voters in all seven states support reforms that “gives priority to higher-wage workers who are self-sufficient.”
- Clear majorities approve of reforms to end so-called “chain migration” and “give greater preference to immigrants with needed skills, and limit family-based immigration to spouses and minor children.”
- Three-quarters of voters support mandatory use of E-Verify by all employers to prevent illegal aliens from taking jobs in the U.S.
