When it comes to immigration, Americans have a lot of misconceptions about immigrants. That鈥檚 one of the findings from a new released Thursday from Public Agenda, USA Today and Ipsos Hidden Common Ground.
At first glance, there doesn鈥檛 seem to be anything Earth-shattering about this latest poll. A majority of Americans support stronger border security. But they also want a path to citizenship for people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. That鈥檚 in line with another from NPR and Ipsos.
Still it鈥檚 the border wall that seems to spark the most disagreement.
President Trump has been pushing for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico border since he was a candidate. In this latest poll, 31% of all Americans say that the border wall is an important symbol, regardless of how many people it stops from crossing the border illegally.
Richard Anson believes that. He鈥檚 a registered Democrat living in San Diego, after spending 35 years in Colorado. He said the wall doesn鈥檛 have to be intimidating.
鈥淚n some cities around California, they paint things, ugly things and make them look prettier,鈥� the survey participant said. 鈥淚 would do that with our fence or our wall or whatever, so the symbolism isn鈥檛 quite so in your face aggressive.
Anson is in line with 71% of Americans and 56% of Democrats who say it鈥檚 important to prevent illegal immigration by enforcing border security more strongly.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 mean that the borders should be closed, no entry. But I do mean that we should be able to close our borders,鈥� Anson said.
Registered Libertarian John Morschauser disagrees. He thinks there should be open borders all the way. He lives in Albuquerque, N.M.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there should be anything stopping people from coming and going,鈥� he said.
鈥淚 think using taxpayers鈥� dollars to build a wall is the crime. That鈥檚 the illegal part of anything, I think. The fact that somebody wants to come into this country and work, to me, is a plus,鈥� Morschasuer said.
Morschauser is in the same camp as about two-thirds of Democrats who say building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border goes against American values and traditions. Compare that to just 17% of Republicans.
He says the U.S. is a nation of immigrants, from the Founding Fathers to today.
鈥淯nless you鈥檙e Native American, you鈥檙e an immigrant. Your descendants are immigrants,鈥� he said.
America may be a nation of immigrants, but overall, Americans have a lot of misperceptions when it comes to immigrants today.
Researchers asked survey participants three questions on that subject. 45% of respondents answered all three of them wrong. Just 8% got them all right.
David Schleifer is the director of research for Public Agenda, the organization behind the survey. He says researchers took how people answered those questions and compared that to their stances on immigration.
鈥淭he more questions people answered correctly, so the better informed they were, the more welcoming immigration policies they favored, and the more positive views they had of immigrants themselves and of immigrants鈥� roles in our society and economy and culture,鈥� Schleifer said.
For example, the people who answered more of those three questions correctly were more skeptical of building a border wall. They were also more likely to believe that the government should allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S.
Schleifer says this gap in knowledge poses an opportunity for people to become more informed. But there鈥檚 also a flip side.
鈥淚 do kind of think that that creates opportunity for maybe some political manipulation,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think it kind of creates this sort of room for politicians to kind of push a policy agenda that members of the public don鈥檛 really understand.鈥�
He says while it was once thought to be a major election year issue in 2020, immigration will now take a backseat to the pandemic response.
鈥淲hile it鈥檚 not necessarily front and center, I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 gone away, and now it鈥檚 really just a question of how the virus itself sort of plays out in relation to immigration,鈥� Schleifer said.
Now, with campaigns in full swing, it鈥檚 a topic that鈥檚 likely to get some national attention heading to November.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, 萝莉少女 in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the .
Copyright 2020 KUNR Public Radio. To see more, visit .
