A border wall, deportation of all 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the US, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio have all been key parts of Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign, but a new poll shows Arizona voters strongly dislike all three.
According to a new Arizona Republic/Morrison/Cronkie News poll, over 54% of Arizona voters have either an “unfavorable” or “very unfavorable” view of the beleaguered Maricopa County Sheriff, who was recently referred by a federal judge to the Department of Justice for possible criminal contempt of court prosecution.
Arpaio faces even worse numbers in his home county, where over 57% of Maricopa County voters view him unfavorably. Local observers have called Arpaio’s reelection race “his toughest campaign in years,” with a recent poll showing him running three points behind his Democratic challenger.
Nearly as unpopular as Arpaio is a wall along the US/Mexico border, with nearly 55% of Arizona voters saying the US should “maybe not” or “definitely not” build the barrier.
“An earlier Cronkite News-Univision News-Dallas Morning News poll conducted in May by Baselice & Associates, Inc. found that even more residents along the border opposed building the wall,” notes KTAR.
“About three out of four residents (72 percent) surveyed on the U.S. side of the border said they do not support building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The margin of error in that poll was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.”
Meanwhile, nearly 68% of Arizona voters said they “disagreed” or “strongly disagreed” with deporting all 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. This includes “a majority of Republican, Democrat and Independent voters,” noted KTAR.
“The poll’s findings contradict Arizona’s reputation as a state that favors taking a hard-line stance on illegal immigration,” notes USA Today:
Living close to the border, Arizona’s voters have a better understanding of immigration issues, said Lisa Magaña, a political-science professor who specializes in immigration policy at Arizona State University’s School of Transborder Studies.
“We just know that a wall is not going to work, that it’s a waste of time and money,” she said.
The poll findings also suggest Donald Trump is out of step with the majority of voters in Arizona, which is increasingly being seen as a battleground state leading up to the November presidential election, she said.
