Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s focus on building an airtight fence along the U.S.-Mexico border has apparently opened the cavern between Republicans and Democrats on the issue, with both sides digging in for the coming political fight.
A new Pew Research Center poll found that the gap has increased 21 points since 2011. The poll found that 73 percent of Republicans now favor the border fence but that just 29 percent of Democrats agree.
“Nearly three-quarters of Republicans (73 percent) now favor building a fence across the entire border with Mexico, up from 62 percent in 2011. Since then, support for a fence has increased 17 percentage points among moderate and liberal Republicans (from 54 percent to 71 percent) and eight points among conservative Republicans (66 percent then, 74 percent now),” said the Pew analysis.
“Over the same period, the share of Democrats who favor building a border fence has declined 10 points (from 39 percent to 29 percent). Independents’ views (43 percent favor) are unchanged since 2011 (44 percent) or 2007 (43 percent),” added Pew.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
