Nearly half of likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers say illegal immigrants should be deported, according to a new poll.
According to a sampling by The Des Moines Register, 47 percent believe it is a good idea to gather up an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States and deport them back to their home countries.
Furthermore, supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are even more likely to be for deportation of illegal immigrants. Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of that subset group support this idea.
Trump has certainly set himself from the rest of the Republican field, calling for deportation of millions of immigrants, supporting tighter border security and supporting the end to birthright citizenship and sanctuary city policies. In doing so, he has also shot to the tops of the polls — in not just Iowa, but nationwide.
However, only 40 percent of those caucus-goers supporting the rest of the GOP’s 2016 presidential field back that type of immigration policy. Forty-five percent believe that deporting illegal immigrants is a poor decision.
Meanwhile, Tea Party Republicans (63 percent) and very conservative likely caucus-goers (56 percent) voiced their support for deportation as a way to address the immigration situations. However, other demographics such as business-oriented establishment Republicans (51 percent) and moderates (58 percent) say deportation of illegal immigrants is a bad idea.
The poll of 400 registered Iowa voters who say they definitely or probably will attend the 2016 Republican caucuses was conducted Aug. 23-26 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
