Former President Donald Trump’s initiative to conduct “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” is gaining significant backing from swing voters and the white working class, both crucial for a victory in this year’s presidential election.
Notably, this support for mass deportations is strong among two key electoral demographics essential for Trump’s reelection bid: swing voters and white working-class voters.
Both groups played a pivotal role in helping Trump secure the presidency in 2016 against Democrat Hillary Clinton, enabling his wins in nearly all Rust Belt states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. To replicate his 2016 success, Trump will need the backing of these groups in those states once again.
With his mass deportation plan, Trump is securing support from about 60% of swing voters, including nearly 40% of potentially disenfranchised Democrats who favor the initiative.
The white working class, often directly competing with illegal immigrants for limited blue-collar jobs, shows overwhelming support for Trump’s deportation plan.
Among white Americans without a college degree, 74% support the deportation plan, with just 26% opposing it. Even among white Americans with a college degree, nearly 60% are in favor of the plan, while 42% oppose it.
Following the 2016 presidential election, FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver explained how the white working class was a deciding factor in Trump’s victory, illustrating the significant electoral impact of these historically low-turnout voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
“In the 10 states with the largest share of white voters without college degrees, Trump exceeded his polling average by about 8 percentage points — a significant polling error,” Silver noted. “… overall, the correlation between the share of white non-college voters in a state and the extent to which Trump outperformed his polls is very high.”
The CBS/YouGov poll surveyed over 1,600 registered voters from June 5-7 and has a margin of error of ± 3.8 percentage points.
