59% of US registered voters are in favor of mass deportations of illegal immigrants: NPR/PBS/Marist Poll

An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll has found that 59 percent of Americans "strongly agree/agree" that those who came to the US illegally should be deported. The poll asked 1,628 adults If they agreed with the statement that "All immigrants who came to the US illegally should be deported." The number of deportations of illegal immigrants under the Biden-Harris administration has dropped 74 percent since their term in office began.

The breakdown shows a little more division, with 30 percent of Kamala Harris supporters favoring mass deportation and 68 percent of them strongly opposed. Independents are in favor of mass deportation of illegal immigrants at 58 percent, close to the trend for adults and registered voters nationwide. 32 percent of Democrats surveyed are in favor of deportations while 67 percent are opposed, and 89 percent of Republicans are in favor of the measure, with only 11 percent opposed.

While white people are strongly in favor at a rate of 60 percent, minorities in America are not far behind. Black Americans favor mass deportation of illegal immigrants at 54 percent while Latinos are at 57 percent. During the VP debate, JD Vance said that mass deportations "will be really good for our workers who just want to earn a fair wage for doing a good day’s work."

The Trump campaign's message of mass deportation has been aimed at working class Americans as it is these people who suffer under open border policies that are believed to cause an increase in crime, an increase in housing costs, and a decrease in jobs for Americans. This class divide is stark in the poll, which was conducted between Sept. 24 and Oct. 1, showing that a majority of those white Americans who have not completed college, 70 percent, favor mass deportation.

The numbers in favor show that there's been a 15 point swing since the spring. In March, 51 percent of nationwide registered voters were opposed to the proposed policy, which is one on which the Trump campaign has been running. Harris has said repeatedly that she's opposed to deportation as a policy, as has her administration's DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who used the example of how difficult it is to deport just one person as a reason why deportations on a mass scale, or any scale, are not something he could get behind.

Immigration is a top issue this election season, with voters well aware of the open border policies of the Biden-Harris administration that have resulted in over 2 million persons illegally entering the United States every year since the duo took the White House in 2021. There are believed to be tens of millions of illegal immigrants currently living in the United States.

Harris has said that she is interested in ways to find a pathway to citizenship and legal status for those persons. Other Democrats, such as Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have said that the illegal immigrants are needed to do manual labor in America. 

NPR PBS News Marist Poll USA NOS and Tables 202410021120 1 by The Post Millennial on Scribd