A policy proposed by former President Trump to detain and deport undocumented immigrants — even if it requires the use of military-protected camps — has left Americans divided, according to a new survey.
Trump, if elected in the November elections, promised to carry out mass deportations using a law that has existed for 226 years allowing the federal government to detain “enemy aliens” in times of war.
50% of Americans surveyed oppose the creation of camps for undocumented immigrants, while 47% support the idea, according to the annual survey by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), in partnership with the Brookings Institution.
Nearly 79% of Republicans favor placing undocumented immigrants in camps, compared to 47% of independents and 22% of Democrats.
White evangelical Protestants (75%) are more likely to accept militarized camps for undocumented immigrants, followed by 61% of white Catholics.
Among non-white Christians, about 47% of Hispanic Protestants, 42% of Black Protestants, and 33% of Hispanic Catholics support this policy.
39% of American Jews and 32% of religiously unaffiliated Americans back the idea.
“I was quite surprised by the number of Americans, especially Republicans and white evangelicals, who supported this,” said Robert P. Jones, president and founder of PRRI, to Axios.
Jones noted that the Alien Enemies Act, the law Trump is referencing, was used 80 years ago during World War II.
Anti-immigration
The same PRRI survey found that the country is becoming more conservative regarding immigration policy.
52% of respondents said they support allowing immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children to gain legal resident status — a decrease of 10 points since the first time PRRI asked the question in 2018.
Additionally, 51% of respondents support building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border — a jump of 10 points since 2016, when the question was first posed.
The survey was conducted online from August 16 to October 4 and was based on a representative sample of 5,027 adults (aged 18 and older) living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Source: Axios