No matter how the poll questions are asked, a clear majority of Americans support President Donald Trump’s January reform of the nation’s refugee policies, says a large new survey of 22,000 people.
“Overall, 54 percent of registered voters approved of the [Jan. 25 refugee] executive order and 40 percent disapproved … Six percent did not have an opinion either way,” according to the February survey by Morning Consult.
The survey asked slightly different questions to subgroups within the huge survey. But public opinion barely budged when different terms were used, Morning Consult said;
There was no difference in results when respondents saw the word banning (53 approve, 40 disapprove) versus blocking (54 approve, 40 disapprove). Nor was there a difference in responses when blocking/banning with no time limit (54 approve, 40 disapprove), the word ‘temporary’ (53 approve, 41 disapprove) or the phrase “for 90 days” (54 approve, 40 disapprove) is used.
Left-wing judges in California have blocked parts of Trump’s order, which temporarily barred inflow of refugees from seven conflict-wracked Muslim countries, halved the annual inflow of refugees to 55,000 and declared formal opposition to the acceptance of would-be immigrants who have “hostile attitudes.” Trump is expected to sign a new order in the next few days to evade the judicial ban.
Islamic groups and progressives oppose what they describe as Trump’s “Muslim ban” or his “travel ban,” but Trump is expected to sign a new order in the next few days to evade the judicial ban.
The policy is strongly supported by Trump’s base, the survey showed.
Approval was 20 percentage points higher among seniors (58 percent) than among adults under 30 years old (39 percent). Republicans (85 percent) were three times as likely to approve as Democrats (29 percent), and men (59 percent) were 10 percentage points more likely to approve than women (49 percent).
The largest differences in responses came when the pollsters changed how the would-be migrants were described:
Support for the ban is 4 percentage points higher, 55 percent approve vs. 51 percent approve, when the population is described as “people” rather than “people, including U.S. lawful permanent residents and visa holders originally.
The survey showed overall strong approval of 34 percent and strong opposition of 30 percent. Somewhat approval was 19 percent and somewhat disapproval was 11 percent, with 6 percent declining to pick a side.
Multiple other polls show broad and stable public support for the president’s policy, despite lopsided opposition among Democrats, progressives and media outlets.
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