(AFP) – Polls released Sunday showed falling support among Americans for Donald Trump’s hardline measures against illegal immigration, as the Republican president celebrated six months back in power. Trump won last year’s election in part with promises to launch a historic deportation drive, riling up his base with exaggerated claims of mass violence committed by undocumented migrants, whom he referred to as “savages” and “animals.”
Polls from both CNN and CBS show that Trump has lost majority support for his deportation approach. Fifty-five percent of respondents feel the raids — frequently seen online in viral videos of masked, unidentified agents seizing people off the street — have gone too far, CNN said. This was up 10 percent from a similar poll in February, shortly after Trump took office.
A majority — 57 percent — said they oppose plans for construction of mass detention facilities, with only 26 percent supporting the idea, CNN said. A CBS News poll found that 56 percent of Americans believe Trump’s administration is targeting migrants who do not represent a threat to public safety, up from 47 percent last month. According to the poll, only 49 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s immigration policies, down from 54 percent last month and 59 percent in February.
Support remains nearly universal among Republicans, however, with 91 percent in favor of the deportations. Opposition among independents is nonetheless at 59 percent and among Democrats at 86 percent.
Trump marked the six-month mark of his second presidency by heading out to his golf club in Virginia, near Washington, and posting on social media that the period was “being hailed as one of the most consequential periods of any President.” “Six months is not a long time to have totally revived a major Country,” he wrote on Truth Social. “One year ago our Country was DEAD, with almost no hope of revival,” he said, adding that now the United States was the “most respected Country anywhere in the World.”
In keeping with other surveys, the CBS News poll found Trump’s overall approval rating is underwater. Currently, only 42 percent of Americans approve of his job, compared to 53 percent in February.
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