The majority of people living along the U.S.-Mexico border oppose the idea of building a wall between the two countries, suggests a new poll.
Seventy-two percent of people on the U.S. side of the border and 86 percent along the Mexican side don’t support Donald Trump’s plan to build the barrier, according to a Cronkite News/Univision News/Dallas Morning News survey of people living in 14 U.S. and Mexican cities between California and Texas.
A majority of respondents ― 59 percent of those in the U.S. and 69 percent of those living in Mexico ― said the presumptive Republican nominee’s rhetoric is hurting the region surrounding the border.
However, there was a major split over trust of law enforcement, a big issue in towns where police presence is high. While 82 percent of respondents in the U.S. said they trust police in their area, 76 percent of those living in Mexico said they don’t trust their local law enforcement.
There are a few caveats to keep in mind while looking at the results of the new survey, The Washington Post notes:
It interviewed people in seven pairs of U.S.-Mexican “sister cities,” and cities in the United States tend to be more liberal-leaning than rural areas, which could mean residents would be more inclined to oppose a border wall. Most of the cities also have overwhelmingly Hispanic populations — for instance, Nogales, Ariz., is 95 percent Hispanic. That could also affect the results, since Latino Americans tend to have more liberal attitudes on immigration issues.
The controversial wall-building plan is a key element of Trump’s campaign, and is set to be included in the Republican Party’s platform this week. Trump has insisted he’ll get Mexico to pay for the construction project, but Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has said there’s “no way” that’s going to happen.
Former Mexican presidents have also ridiculed the suggested wall. Vicente Fox tore into the proposal during an interview earlier this year, saying he’s “not going to pay for that fucking wall.”
Felipe Calderon has called the plan “stupid.”
“Mexican people, we are not going to pay any single cent for such a stupid wall,” he said in February. “And it’s going to be completely useless. ... If this guy pretends that closing the borders to anywhere either for trade [or] for people is going to provide prosperity to the United States, he is completely crazy.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
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