Americans on the whole don’t like the policy…
But, as we know….Donald Trump is playing to a minority of American’s….
From FiveThirtyEight….
As of early Tuesday, four pollsters — CBS News, CNN, Quinnipiacand IPSOS — had released surveys; they found that about two-thirds of the American public oppose the policy, on average.
Not many voters support separating parents and children
Respondents’ views on separating families crossing the border and holding children and parents in different facilities while they await trial
| POLLSTER | DATES | SUPPORT | OPPOSE | OTHER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CBS News | June 14-17 | 17% | 67% | 16% |
| CNN | June 14-17 | 28 | 67 | 5 |
| Quinnipiac | June 14-17 | 27 | 66 | 8 |
| IPSOS | June 14-15 | 27 | 55 | 17 |
| Average | 25 | 64 | 12 |
Each poll asked about the policy in a slightly different way. For example, two of the polls reference the Trump administration, the other two do not. Additionally, the polls provide different information about the rationale behind the policy. But they all found pretty similar results: Support levels are substantially lower than President Trump’s approval rating, suggesting even some voters who like Trump’s performance overall dislike this.
Unsurprisingly, all the polls also found a partisan split. Democrats are overwhelmingly opposed, and Republicans are split, with about half in favor and the other half either opposing and being unsure.1
Republicans are split on separating families at the border
Respondents’ views on separating families crossing the border and holding children and parents in different facilities while they await trial, by party
| DEMOCRAT | REPUBLICAN | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| POLLSTER | DATES | SUPPORT | OPPOSE | OTHER | SUPPORT | OPPOSE | OTHER |
| CBS News | June 14-17 | 5% | 90% | 4% | 36% | 39% | 24% |
| CNN | June 14-17 | 5 | 92 | 2 | 58 | 34 | 9 |
| Quinnipiac | June 14-17 | 7 | 91 | 2 | 55 | 35 | 11 |
| IPSOS | June 14-15 | 14 | 75 | 11 | 46 | 32 | 21 |
| Average | 8 | 87 | 5 | 49 | 35 | 16 | |
The fact that the separation policy has plurality support among GOP respondents in several polls has gotten a lot of attention. But in the partisan era in which we live, it’s noteworthy that Trump’s policy has only about half of Republicans on board.
And overall, compared to polling on other immigration-related policies, support for separating families is quite low…..