Two new polls show a large number of Democrats believe there is a border crisis and back a census question about citizenship–despite the rhetoric of their elected officials.
A Harvard University Center for American Political Studies and Harris poll released at the start of the month finds that a majority of Democrats and Hispanics support having a citizenship question on next year’s U.S. Census questionnaire.
Overall, 67 percent backed adding a question on citizenship. This number includes a slight majority of Democrats–52 percent–and a large majority of Hispanics as 55 percent backed asking the question.
Voters of all stripes–74 percent of rural voters, 59 percent of black voters and 58 percent of urban voters–backed asking the question. So did 47 percent of voters who supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and 44 percent of self-identified liberals.
The Harvard poll of 2,182 registered voters was conducted from June 26 through June 29.
Another poll shows something similar. CNN released a poll earlier this month which shows 74 percent of those surveyed say there is a crisis along the Mexican-U.S. border. Back in January, only 45 percent felt that way.
In the more recent poll, 70 percent of Democrats say there is a crisis at the border. Back in January, only 23 percent of Democrats called it a crisis.
In the January survey, 47 percent of independents said there was a border crisis–but the new poll shows 72 percent of them say there is a border crisis.
Still, a majority of those surveyed–60 percent–say immigrants coming from Central American countries should be able to seek asylum in the U.S. including 85 percent of Democrats, 60 percent of independents and 31 percent of Republicans. Overall, majorities in all political groups said, when it comes to dealing with illegal immigrants currently living in the country, the government needs to be arranging a plan to allow some of them to become legal residents.
The pol of 1,613 registered voters was taken from June 28 through June 30 with a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
Reach Ed Dean at ed.dean@floridadaily.com.
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