Despite the mainstream media’s narratives, there is broad popular support for President Donald Trump’s efforts to heavily restrict immigration in response to the coronavirus, according to a poll by USA Today.
The poll, conducted with Public Agenda and Ipsos, showed that four-fifths of Republicans (81 percent), just under half of Democrats (49 percent), and nearly two-thirds of independents (62 percent) all support President Trump’s strict cutting of most immigration—legal and illegal—into the United States.
James Hollifield, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, compared the surprisingly high bipartisan agreement to a similar national consensus in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “When you have these moments of national crisis, people suspend some of their skepticism about closing the borders. They’re willing to do that,” Hollifield said.
Among President Trump’s biggest immigration moves during the pandemic have been an expediting of the construction of the border wall, and several executive orders canceling guest worker visas, including H-1B visas, for the remainder of the year in order to ensure that newly-reopened jobs go to Americans first. Even before the pandemic began, President Trump had also made historic cuts to the federal refugee program, bringing the maximum amount of possible refugees allowed into the country down to its lowest levels in history on an annual basis.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court struck down the Trump Administration’s efforts to rescind the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
DACA, which is widely unpopular, attempted to give broad amnesty to illegal aliens based solely on how young they were when they first entered. President Trump responded to the ruling by saying that he would find another way to cancel the program. He already successfully eliminated DACA’s partner program, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), and nearly 300 miles of the wall, his signature domestic policy achievement, has been built during his term in office.