CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten pointed out Wednesday that Americans have become “more hawkish” on illegal immigration since President Donald Trump’s first term.
A majority of American adults, 56%, supported deporting all illegal immigrants in an October 2024 ABC News poll. In the same poll, the most recent percentage in favor of deportations is a stark rise from the 42% in 2015 and 36% in 2016 who agreed with the action, Enten noted. (RELATED: Trump DHS Chucks Two Biden-Era Immigration Policies Into Dustbin)
“This is where I think you get very interesting, so we’ll take a look at that ABC News question in particular, and you can really see that there’s been a massive shift from when Trump was first getting into office 8 years ago … You go back to 2015, it was 42%. Go to 2016, it was 36%. Look at where we are now,” Enten said. “This was taken at the end of last year, 56%. This is 20 points higher than it was just before Trump got into office the first time. So feelings towards immigration in this country, feelings toward undocumented immigrants and deporting all of them have become considerably more hawkish and I think it gives Donald Trump much more leverage to go with the American people and sort of have these hawkish, some might say harsh, different rhetoric and issue-based of going after immigrants who are here illegally.”
“So I think the American people are going to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt in doing what he wants to do, at least if you believe these blunt questions, including this one,” Enten continued.
The number of encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border rose to historic highs during former President Joe Biden’s administration, which resulted in roughly 8.5 million migrant encounters throughout its four fiscal years. […]
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