Trump Republicans consider immigration the most critical of all potential threats facing the United States.
By Dina Smeltz
Senior Fellow, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
By Craig Kafura
Assistant Director, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
While Republicans have been concerned about immigration since the Chicago Council first started asking about the issue in 1998, those concerns reached new heights starting in 2016. It’s no coincidence that just one year prior, Donald Trump entered the GOP primary race. He launched his campaign in 2015 with an all-guns-blazing approach to the issue of immigration, calling for the construction of a border wall in the southern United States and strengthening the “enforcement arm” of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. Trump’s rivals for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination vary in the extent to which they embrace his extreme views on immigration, but they generally also signal a tough approach to the issue as one of their key strategies to attract voters.
These policies seem to mostly align with Republican supporters among the US public, whether they are “Trump Republicans” who express a very favorable view of the former president (47% of Republicans) or “non-Trump Republicans” who express a somewhat favorable or unfavorable view (53% of Republicans).1 Majorities of both camps consider immigration a critical threat to the United States and support using the US military to prevent immigrants from crossing the southern border. But there are large disparities between Trump and non-Trump Republicans on legal immigration levels and whether undocumented immigrants should be provided a path to citizenship or be forced to leave the country.
Key Findings
- Trump Republicans consider immigration the most critical of all potential threats facing the United States (88%). A majority of non-Trump Republicans also consider immigration a critical threat (67%), but not as threatening as cyberattacks, weakening democracy in the United States, or the development of China as a world power.
- Two-thirds of Trump Republicans say legal immigration should be decreased (66%). A slight plurality of non-Trump Republicans say legal immigration should remain at present levels (42% vs. 38% decreased)
- When asked about undocumented immigrants currently working in the United States, non-Trump Republicans are far more likely than Trump Republicans to prefer a path to citizenship immediately or after a waiting period (51% vs. 32%).
- A slim majority (54%) of Trump Republicans support deportations for undocumented immigrants working in the United States. Only 29 percent of non-Trump Republicans agree.
- Large majorities of Trump Republicans (92%) and non-Trump Republicans (67%) would support using the US military to prevent immigrants from coming into the United States from Mexico.
- Smaller majorities of both groups would also favor sending US troops to combat drug cartels in Mexico (72% of Trump, 57% non-Trump Republicans).
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