A recent UC Irvine poll shows about two-thirds of Orange County residents have taken a dim view of the Trump administrations immigration enforcement efforts, a professor who led the survey said Wednesday.
A majority of residents favor more pragmatic solutions to immigration issues for the most part, said Jon B. Gould, dean of UCI’s School of Social Ecology and director of the poll of 1,202 residents March 24 through March 31.
“This is a response from a county that seems to be generally supportive of immigration and willing to do some enforcement, but nothing severe or extreme,” Gould told City News Service.
“There’s a lot they don’t like” about President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, Gould said.
“The irony in all of this is if Trump stuck with what he wanted to do” when he campaigned for president, “he would have found support in the county, but by going so far in enforcement and using mechanisms never seen before he’s lost two-thirds of the county on the question of immigration.”
Part of what drove the response is the county’s growing population of migrants and those descended from immigrants, Gould said.
The dean said he was at an immigration event on campus recently where he asked attendees how many had descended from immigrants.
“And 80% of hands went up,” he said. “A lot of this is how Orange County has changed in the last three to four decades. It’s a much more diverse county and people want legal immigration.”
Overall, “immigration is a positive” to a majority of county residents, Gould said.
About 40% of the county has been raised by parents who were foreign born, Gould said. it is especially the case with Asian Americans with 82% and half of Latinos, according to the survey.
For residents 46 or older, about 25% have two foreign-born parents, but that number rises to just over 50% for those 18 to 45.
About one-third of respondents said they know an immigrant living in the country illegally, and another one in five are unsure. Fifty-one percent of Latinos personally know an immigrant living in the country illegally and 23% of Asian Americans know someone living in the country illegally.
Forty-four percent of respondents said immigration “mostly helps,” 21% said it balances out and 27% said it mostly hurts.
Sixty-four percent of Democrats say immigration mostly helps the county, but 52% of Republicans say immigration mostly hurts. By a two-to-one margin, independents believe the pros outweigh the cons of immigration.
Democrats and independents are mostly aligned on immigration issues, according to the survey.
Twenty-eight percent think immigration should go up with 30% want to see a decrease and 31% favor the status quo.
A majority of respondents also do not view immigration as prompting a rise in crime. Fifty-two percent do not think it boosts crime with 38% saying it does.
Broken down by partisanship, 80% of Democrats say no with 11% thinking it does. Among Republicans 72% think immigration increases crime with 18% disputing that. Among independents 54% say it does not lead to an increase and 34% think it does.
Overall, 62% of the county disapproves of Trump’s immigration enforcement policies with 36% favoring them. That mirrors is overall approval in the county at 35%.
As for Trump’s policies at the border, 41% approve and 55% disapprove.
Only 27% support enforcing immigration at hospitals or schools and 33% opposing asylum applications at the border. Only 36% support ending birthright citizenship and 37% favoring using the military to support deportations.
But 61% support restricting immigration from countries deemed by the government as dangerous or unstable and 81% favor cracking down on human trafficking.
Sixty-seven percent of respondents support efforts to help undocumented immigrants find a pathway to legal status. But 72% support kicking out convicted felons while only 23% favor that for non-violent offenders.
A slight majority of 53% oppose abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
By a 47% to 44% margin, the respondents favor efforts by cities and states to restrict cooperation federal deportations.
Fifty-seven percent say it is acceptable for religious organizations to decline to assist deportations. It breaks down to 75% of Democrats and 57% of independents in support but 59% of Republicans wanting religious groups to help with deportations.
“This is a group that historically goes to church more often and has more attachment to religion so you’d expect them to carve out more freedom for churches, so that’s unusual,” Gould said.
As for sanctuary policies, 51% support them with 37% opposing.