A waste of money? Trump's border wall
falling flat in Arizona: Reuters/Ipsos poll
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[October 24, 2016]
By Luciana Lopez and Chris Kahn
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump rode to
the top of the Republican ticket promising a "big, beautiful, powerful"
border wall with Mexico to stop the flow of undocumented immigrants.
Along that border, however, Americans are more likely to call the wall a
"waste of money", according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.
The results show that while the New York businessman may have expected
his tough stance on immigration to fire up support nationally, it seems
to be falling short in a state heavily affected by illegal immigration,
and where he is now facing a surprising challenge from his Democratic
rival Hillary Clinton.
Asked if a wall would be “an effective barrier or a waste of money,” 47
percent of Arizona residents picked “waste of money” and 34 percent
picked “effective barrier”, with the rest picking neither, according to
the poll. Among Republicans, 21 percent picked "waste of money” and 57
percent picked “effective barrier."
Most Arizonans also believed it is not realistic to expect Mexico to pay
for the wall, something Trump has vowed would happen if he’s elected
president on Nov. 8, according to the poll.
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The results lined up closely with nationwide opinions of Trump’s
immigration policy: 49 percent of American adults say the wall would be
a “waste of money” and 31 percent say it would be an “effective
barrier.”
“As big and powerful, as rich as this nation is, we cannot just leave
the door open,” said Tony Estrada, Santa Cruz County Sheriff, who has
served in law enforcement in the border county for 49 years. “But, we
need a realistic and humane process. Donald Trump is … catering to
people’s fear.”
Polls show Arizona, a state that has voted Democrat only once in a
presidential election since 1952, has become competitive. The Real Clear
Politics average of polls showed Clinton ahead there by 1.3 percentage
points. Reuters/Ipsos polling shows Trump ahead there by 4 points.
Clinton’s campaign said last week it would spend $2 million more
campaigning in Arizona before the election.
DRIVING LATINOS TO THE POLLS
Arizona’s border with Mexico is 370 miles long, covering an isolated
desert terrain that has drawn millions seeking to cross illegally. The
state's number of undocumented immigrants has fallen 35 percent from a
2007 peak to 325,000, according to the Pew Research Center, as Arizona
cracked down on that population. Nationwide, the number has dropped 9
percent from a high in 2007 to 11.1 million undocumented immigrants.
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Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump (R) and vice
presidential candidate Mike Pence (L) hold a campaign rally in
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. October 22, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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Wendy Cornacchio, a 45 year-old Trump supporter from Phoenix, said
she believes illegal immigration is still a problem – but she would
rather see technologies like drone surveillance than Trump’s wall to
address it. “I don’t think that necessarily building a wall will
work, but the concept of closing the borders I agree with,” she
said.
Florida is another closely-fought state that has seen large levels
of illegal immigration, though by sea rather than by land. Some 41
percent of voters there said they believed Trump’s wall would be a
“waste of money”, while 36 percent thought it would be an “effective
barrier”.
Progressive activist groups in both Florida and Arizona have been
using Trump’s hard line on immigration against him to mobilize
Latinos for Clinton, who advocates a path to citizenship for some
undocumented immigrants. Mi Familia Vota, for example, says they
registered more than 15,000 people in Arizona this year.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English and Spanish
in Arizona and Florida. The Arizona poll ran from Oct. 5 to Oct. 19
and gathered responses from 2,600 people. The Florida poll ran from
Oct. 5 to Oct. 12 and gathered responses from 2,610 people. Both
polls have a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2
percentage points for the total group and 3 percentage points for
likely voters.
(Additional reporting by Paul Ingram in Tuscon; Editing by Richard
Valdmanis and Mary Milliken)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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