Donald Trump may be on the verge of winning the Republican presidential nomination, but border security–his signature issue–is becoming increasingly unpopular, according to a comprehensive new poll from Pew Research Center.
The Pew poll, which was released on Thursday, shows that border security is far less popular than it was last year, before Donald Trump’s face became a near-permanent fixture on cable news networks. In September of 2015, 46 percent of those polled said they favored building a fence along America’s southern border with Mexico. But in its latest poll, Pew found that support had fallen significantly, with only 38 percent favoring a border fence. When the question was reframed to ask about a border wall as opposed to a border fence, only 34 percent said they would favor building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Support for the legalization of illegal immigration also hit a new high, with 75 percent of poll respondents saying that illegal immigrants should be able to stay in the U.S. rather than being deported. Only 23 percent, a new low, said they favored a national law enforcement effort to deport illegal immigrants. In 2014, 30 percent of respondents said all illegal immigrants should be deported.
Trump has repeatedly said he got into the race because nobody was talking about the need for tighter border security and tougher enforcement of immigration laws. If the Pew poll is indication, however, the more Trump talks about the issues, the more likely people are to take the opposite position.
You can read through the results of the entire poll here.
