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According to a report published by US immigration reform group, FWD.us, which is backed by Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, voters in so-called critical ‘swing states’ hold adverse views towards Donald Trump’s US immigration plans, which involve deporting 11 million undocumented migrants.
Swing states are US states where the Republican and Democratic parties have similar levels of support among voters, which are viewed as important in determining the overall result of a Presidential election.
A survey of 600 bipartisan voters across the three swing states of Colorado, Florida and Nevada, which are heavily populated by Hispanic communities, revealed that 69 percent of respondents oppose the Republican nominee’s plans to deport the reported 11 million undocumented migrants currently living in the US.
Meanwhile, 49 percent ‘strongly’ disagree with the real estate tycoon’s plans. The results of the survey, which were published just prior to the Republican National Convention on Monday, June 18, represent another challenge to Trump and his policies from technology companies.
Sanwar Ali, Editor of workpermit.com News has the following comments to make:
Trump’s immigration policies are very unpopular amongst a large section of the US electorate. To win the Presidential elections Trump will need to have a bigger base of voters than those that voted him in as the Republican Presidential candidate. Trump has alienated many different groups of people. He may find it difficult to gain the support he needs to win.
A win for Trump if you believe what he says will also affect US non-immigrant visa programs such as the L-1 visa program and the H-1B visa program. It is already difficult and expensive to come under these visa programs. It may be more difficult still if Trump becomes President. Will Trump actually be able to further restrict immigration even if he wants to? Trump is very unpopular with a number of Democrats and indeed Republicans. Like Obama he may have some difficulties pushing through with some of his immigration changes.
FWD.us lobbying for US immigration reform
Since its inception in 2013 by 15 entrepreneurs, political action group FWD.us has actively lobbied for US immigration reform to keep highly-skilled, foreign-born immigrants such as programmers, entrepreneurs and others in America.
While Trump’s immigration reform plans remain popular among his loyal supporters, the FWD.us survey shows that the response to Trump’s plans among the wider electorate, including Republicans, is mixed. Furthermore, on Thursday June 14, an open letter was signed by 145 tech leaders slamming Trump’s immigration plans.
Global Strategy Group’s Democratic pollster, Jefrey Pollock, said: “The battleground voters in these states oppose every major immigration policy that Donald Trump has put forth.”
Trump campaign offers no comment on immigration survey
At the time of writing, no comment has yet been offered by Trump’s Presidential campaign regarding the survey. Interestingly though, one-third of Republican respondents to the survey did not favour Trump’s US immigration reform plans.
According to the FWD.us survey, 69 percent of Republican voters opposed the revoking of US citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, which has been one of the focal points of Trump’s immigration plans.
A news report published by CNET.com claims that Trump’s immigration plans would see potential tech employees, along with thousands of other people, barred from entering or remaining in the US or even working for companies like Facebook, Dropbox and Microsoft.
The CNET article states that the survey conducted by FWD.us ‘gives Zuckerberg’s organisation hope for immigration reform, which it says would create 3.22 million jobs by 2024 and cut the federal deficit by $897 billion.’
President of FWD.us, Todd Schulte, said: “2017 is a really clear and excellent opportunity to pass an immigration reform through Congress. We look at these numbers and we see strong bipartisan support.”
John Lerner, who represents Republican polling organization, Basswood Research, recognized that Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric has been effective through much of his Presidential campaign. However, he also stated that Trump’s anti-immigration agenda has ‘run its course’.
Lerner said: “Trump got mileage to date out of his position [on immigration], but that mileage is quickly running out and the electorate he has to appeal to now is very different.”
