California voters are sharply divided along partisan lines over the Trump administration\u2019s immigration raids this year in Los Angeles and across the nation, according to a new poll. <\/p>\n
Just over half of the state\u2019s registered voters oppose federal efforts to reduce undocumented immigration, and 61% are against deporting everyone in the nation who doesn\u2019t have legal status, according to a recent poll<\/a> by UC Berkeley\u2019s Possibility Lab released to The Times on Wednesday.<\/p>\n But there is an acute difference in opinions based on political leanings.<\/p>\n Nearly 80% of Democrats oppose reducing the number of people entering the United States illegally, and 90% are against deporting everyone in the country who is undocumented, according to the poll. Among Republicans, 5% are against reducing the entries and 10% don\u2019t believe all undocumented immigrants should be forced to leave. <\/p>\n \u201cThe big thing that we find, not surprisingly, is that Democrats and Republicans look really different,\u201d said political scientist Amy Lerman, director of UC Berkeley\u2019s Possibility Lab, who studies race, public opinion and political behavior. \u201cOn these perspectives, they fall pretty clearly along party lines. While there\u2019s some variation within the parties by things like age and race, really, the big divide is between Democrats and Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n While there were some differences based on gender, age, income, geography and race, the results largely mirrored the partisan divide in the state, Lerman said.<\/p>\n One remarkable finding was that nearly a quarter of survey respondents personally knew or were acquainted with someone in their family or friend groups directly affected by the deportation efforts, Lerman said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a really substantial proportion,\u201d she said. \u201cSimilarly, the extent to which we see people reporting that people in their communities are concerned enough about deportation efforts that they\u2019re not sending their kids to school, not shopping in local stores, not going to work,\u201d not seeking medical care or attending church services.<\/p>\n The poll surveyed a sample of the state\u2019s registered voters and did not include the sentiments of the most affected communities \u2014 unregistered voters or those who are ineligible to cast ballots because they are not citizens.<\/p>\n A little more than 23 million of California\u2019s 39.5 million residents were registered to vote as of late October, according to the secretary of state\u2019s office.<\/p>\n \u201cSo if we think about the California population generally, this is a really significant underestimate of the effects, even though we\u2019re seeing really substantial effects on communities,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Earlier this year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched a series of raids in Los Angeles and surrounding communities<\/a> that spiked in June, creating both fear and outrage in Latino communities. Despite opposition from Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and other elected Democrats, the Trump administration also deployed the National Guard<\/a> to the streets of the nation\u2019s second-largest city to, federal officials said, protect federal immigration officials.<\/p>\n The months since have been chaotic, with masked, armed agents randomly pulling people \u2014 most of whom are Latino \u2014 off the streets and out of their workplaces and sending many to detention facilities, where some have died. Some deportees were flown to an El Salvador prison. Multiple lawsuits have been filed by state officials and civil rights groups. <\/p>\n In one notable local case, a federal district judge issued a ruling temporarily blocking federal agents from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate immigration arrests in the Los Angeles area. The Supreme Court granted an emergency appeal<\/a> and lifted that order, while the case moves forward.<\/p>\n More than 7,100 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in the Los Angeles area by federal authorities since June 6, according to the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n