Diverse county supports immigrants, split on Trump deportation policies – Orange County Register

Orange County widely recognizes and supports the cultural and economic benefits brought by immigrants, but about 6 in 10 residents disapprove of President Donald Trump’s current approach to handling immigration issues.

The UCI-OC Poll’s first deep dive on immigration reports residents — 1,202 were surveyed in March — largely support deportation within a narrow scope, such as for violent crimes or national security threats.

Home to large, diverse immigrant communities — with nearly 40% of residents raised by parents who were both born abroad — the politically purple county is described by the survey’s report, released Tuesday, April 28, as a “microcosm” of the country’s broader immigration debate, revealing divergent views across ethnicity, generation and political party lines.

A large majority of residents, when asked about the effects of immigration, saw benefits for Orange County, saying immigrants fill needed low-wage jobs (76%) and also provide high-skilled workers (56%), enrich civic life in the county (67%) and create new business and job opportunities (48%).

“This is not an open borders county, but it’s certainly not an anti-immigrant county or a county that wants to deport most of the immigrants who are here,” said Jon B. Gould, the UCI-OC Poll director and dean of UCI’s School of Social Ecology.

He added that politically independent voters — those registered as no party preference — have shifted closer to Democrats on the issue, leaving Republicans more isolated than in previous election cycles. The survey found that overall, about 44% of Orange County residents believe immigration mostly helps the country. Factoring in how people have registered politically, then 64% of Democrats feel immigration is helping the U.S., while 52% of Republicans believe immigration is mostly hurting the country. Independents believe the benefits of immigration outweigh the costs by 2 to 1, according to the survey’s findings.

“What we’re seeing in this poll is that independents are much more on the side of Democrats, not as strongly, but much more so, which suggests that Republicans are kind of off more on their own island on the issue of immigration than they have been before,” said Gould.

When it comes to federal operations at the local level, residents are split mainly across party lines, but lean toward limiting broader enforcement.

Of the county’s residents, about 47% say state and local governments should not be required to assist federal deportation efforts, or 72% of Democrats and just 22% of Republicans. After hearing both pro- and anti-sanctuary messages, 51% told the poll that Orange County cities and the county should adopt sanctuary policies, while 37% rejected the idea, with opposition higher among Republicans at 76%.

Yet nearly two-thirds of residents also oppose the current actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — at a rate of 90% among Democrats and 69% among independents. Roughly 75% of Republicans continue to support ICE’s efforts.

Just a narrow majority of respondents opposed abolishing the agency outright, with 86% of Republicans and 48% of independents favoring keeping ICE in place, while two-thirds of Democrats favoring its abolishment.

A majority of residents, about 57%, believe churches and religious organizations should be allowed to decline assisting with federal deportation efforts, with 75% of Democrats and 57% of independents agreeing. Yet to Gould’s surprise, he said, 59% of Republicans say religious groups should still be required to assist the government.

“If you were to predict one group that would want to carve out freedom for churches to be left alone by the government, you might very well expect it to be Republicans. But in this situation, Republicans are telling us that their ideology on immigration trumps their ideology on religious freedom,” Gould said.

“I would have loved to be able to have a focus group with them on this one to figure it out because it’s anomalous. … It’s not anything I would predict,” he added.

Another 67% of those surveyed support allowing undocumented residents to obtain legal status rather than face deportation, with 76% saying immigrants help fill essential low-wage jobs. Still, 61% back limiting immigration from countries the U.S. government deems dangerous or unstable, with 81% of residents in support of cracking down on human traffickers. Also, 72% support automatic deportations for those convicted of violent crimes, but only 23% support deporting nonviolent offenders.

Asked about approaches to handling immigration issues, about 63% opposed using the military to assist deportations, according to the survey findings. Another 64% were against ending birthright citizenship, 67% opposed denying asylum seekers at the border and 73% were against conducting enforcement operations at hospitals or schools.

About half of residents aged 18 to 45 have two foreign-born parents, compared to about a quarter of those 46 and older, and that generational divide suggests attitudes may shift the political landscape on immigration over the next decade or so, Gould said.

“If you cut out everybody in the county who is 46 years and above, this would be an incredibly pro-immigrant, anti-enforcement county. Indeed, we would look as blue as the rest of California, if not bluer,” Gould said.

Gould said he is old enough to remember Prop 187, the 1994 state ballot initiative that aimed to prohibit undocumented immigrants from accessing public education and social services, “which was quite popular here in Orange County.”

“And here we are several decades later,” he said, “and this is a county that looks very different on the question of immigration.”