Americans are prepared to show leniency to illegal immigrants who work on farms or in the hospitality industry, according to new polling that found voters like the idea of carving them out of deportations and offering them legal status.
The poll of eight states, sponsored by the American Business Immigration Coalition and shared first with The Washington Times, gives ammunition to President Trump, who has suggested those workers deserve special consideration even as he pursues a campaign of mass deportations.
Support for the idea was strong across the board, ranging from 76% in New Hampshire and 79% in Michigan to 87% in Texas and a whopping 89% in Maine.
Levels were a little lower among just Republicans but still overwhelming, with at least 65% support and some states nearing 90%.
Voters also backed exceptions for migrants who work in construction and senior care.
“These results demonstrate an unprecedented consensus among battleground voters of all political backgrounds — and especially Republicans — that trusted, long-term undocumented workers who contribute to our farms, hotels and restaurants deserve stability and the opportunity to keep supporting our communities and economy,” said Rebecca Shi, CEO of the American Business Immigration Coalition.
The poll was conducted by the Tarrance Group.
The states surveyed were Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Texas.
The question asked was whether they agreed with Mr. Trump’s idea that “long-term, trusted, undocumented immigrants working on farms and in hotels and restaurants should be allowed to get a work permit and stay in the U.S.”
“Our polling shows that battleground Republican voters overwhelmingly support President Trump’s proposal to grant work permits to long-term undocumented immigrants who work, pay taxes and have not committed a crime,” said B.J. Martino, CEO of the Tarrance Group.
The polling question didn’t mention citizenship or what the legal status would be.
Mr. Trump surged into office with competing goals on immigration. He vowed to focus deportation efforts on hardened criminals, but also to reach mass deportations.
After farmers complained that their workforce was afraid to show up, he issued a directive to Homeland Security to go easy on the country’s heartland and focus on sanctuary cities.
Speaking at a rally in Iowa last month, he laid out his thoughts to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people in some way, Kristi, I think we’re going to have to just say that’s going to be good, right?” he said.
“We don’t want to do it where we take all of the workers off the farms,” he said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is running at nearly 1,300 deportations a day, which if carried out for a year would be a record pace.
But immigration advocates say Homeland Security is sweeping up nonhardened criminals to boost its removal numbers.
As of July 26, 33% of those in ICE custody who were arrested by the agency didn’t have criminal records aside from entering the country illegally.
That’s up substantially from the end of the Biden administration, when the figure was less than 10% who lacked hardened criminal records.
The poll was conducted July 21-27 and surveyed 806 people across the states, including 549 Republicans and 270 Hispanic voters.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.