A sharp shift in public sentiment has emerged as Donald Trump's immigration crackdown reshapes how Americans view their country's welcome to outsiders. An Associated Press-NORC survey conducted last month reveals the scope of the change: roughly 60 percent of respondents say the United States was once a great place for immigrants but no longer is.
Only a quarter of adults surveyed now believe the country remains welcoming to immigrants. About one in ten said they never thought it was.
The polling snapshot captures a moment 14 months into Trump's return to the White House, marked by his promised "largest deportation operation in US history." Immigration agents, sometimes accompanied by military personnel, have swept through multiple cities and states to detain people in the country illegally. Some operations have turned violent, including two separate incidents in Minneapolis in January when unarmed US citizens protesting the enforcement actions were shot and killed by immigration officers.
The human toll extends beyond enforcement operations themselves. Nearly a third of poll respondents said they or someone they know personally had been affected by the administration's immigration crackdown in the past 12 months. Among Hispanic adults, that figure jumps to about 60 percent.
The anxiety has prompted visible behavioral changes. Almost half of Hispanic adults surveyed now carry proof of US citizenship or permanent residency, citing fear of detention or deportation by federal immigration agencies.
The fear cuts across citizenship lines. In small-town Illinois, Kathy Bailey, 79, observed the shift firsthand at her local swim class. Two naturalized US citizens in the class, both from Latin America, began carrying their passports whenever they left home. One woman was so worried about standing out in her predominantly white community that carrying documentation became routine, despite her legal status.
Nick Grivas, 40, of Massachusetts, traces his awareness back to his grandfather's immigration from Greece two generations ago. He sees Trump's policies as a fundamental rejection of the immigrant experience. "We can see how we're treating children and the children of the immigrants, and we're not viewing them as potential future Americans," Grivas said. He believes the climate of fear will deter newcomers from investing in their communities if they doubt they can stay.
Reid Gibson, a 72-year-old Missouri retiree, summed up the sentiment bluntly: "This is not a good country for immigrants any more."
The survey also tested views on birthright citizenship, an issue Trump has attempted to restrict through executive order. The courts have blocked the order, and the US Supreme Court is currently considering the matter. Support for automatic citizenship varies sharply depending on the immigration status of the child's parents. While 65 percent believe children born in the US should receive citizenship regardless of parental status, only 49 percent extend that view to children born to parents in the country illegally.
Democrats in the survey were more likely than independents or Republicans to know someone affected by the crackdown, and people with personal connections to immigration enforcement reported more negative views of the country's openness to newcomers.
Author James Rodriguez: "This poll captures a country reshaping its identity in real time, and the erosion of support even among those who might once have shrugged at immigration policy should alarm anyone paying attention to where this is heading."
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