Donald Trump based his campaign on trying to scare the public about immigration. He called undocumented immigrants rapists, murderers, and gang members, and warned of a crime wave if that immigration is not stopped. He has not mellowed. In the last few days, he has repeatedly said that the undocumented immigrants would cause much more crime if allowed to come to this country.
Trump's xenophobic and racist base believe those lies -- and they are lies (since statistics show that undocumented immigrants actually commit far fewer serious crimes than U.S. citizens commit). Fortunately, the U.S. public is not buying the repeated lies of Trump.
It turns out that only 26% (the trumpistas) believe undocumented immigrants commit more serious crimes, while a significant majority of 65% say they don't commit more crimes. That's a huge 39 point gap. And that feeling persists through all racial, age, and education groups. Even Republicans have a plurality of 46% saying undocumented immigrants do not commit more serious crimes, while 42% say they do.
The chart above reflects the results of a new Pew Research Center survey -- done between June 5th and 12th of a national sample of 2,002 adults, with a 2.6 point margin of error.
