“The tide is shifting and there are holes in Trump’s border wall fiasco, literally.”
Donald Trump’s racist border wall obsession is a ridiculous and offensive policy idea and politically unpopular. In light of the fact that the wall can be sawed through, Trump is now pushing for $300 million more in “quality assurance” money – which will be spent on “‘analysis of construction contractor claims,’ identifying ‘potential construction issues,’ and ‘material testing.’”
Meanwhile, political results and new polling confirms that Americans – and border residents – recognize the wall as a terrible idea and one that’s both unpopular and ineffective. As Newsweek reports, according to a new poll of voters in the four Southwestern border states from the University of California San Diego’s U.S. Immigration Policy Center:
… More than 56 percent said they either “strongly disapprove” or “disapprove” of the president’s efforts [at the border]
…. More than 60 percent expressed support for the idea of “finding alternatives to immigration detention for families fleeing persecution and seeking refuge in the U.S.”
…Nearly 60 percent of people said they feel that those fleeing persecution and seeking refuge in the U.S. should instead be allowed to enter the country while their asylum cases are pending “in order to ensure their safety.”
… [J]ust over 40 percent said they trusted that [Border Control] would keep themselves and their families safe.
As Trump gears up for re-election and as Republicans keep covering for him – including 2020 Senate incumbent candidates voting to support his effort to raid military money to build the wall – the sheer folly of Trump’s autographed border wall leaves border state Republicans in a politically dangerous place.
This polling solidifies what we learned on Tuesday night: Trump and the Republicans going all-in on xenophobia and bigotry isn’t working,” said Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication for America’s Voice. “Trump has poured over $10 billion into a vanity project that, it turns out, most Americans — including border residents— don’t want. Think of the real, systematic changes that could have been effected had that money been allocated to making our immigration and border security systems work, rather than a 30-foot-tall tribute to racism that can be sawed through with a $100 saw. The tide is shifting and there are holes in Trump’s border wall fiasco, literally. While immigration was part of the recipe that worked for Trump in the 2016 election, it might just be what loses him the 2020 race, bringing down with him a number of his fellow Republicans.
The full report from researcher Tom Wong at UCSD’s U.S. Immigration Policy Center, Public Opinion About the Border, At the Border: is available here and on the website of the Southern Borders Community Coalition, here, including a recording of a tele-press conference yesterday on the poll’s findings.
