Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
Build a wall along the Mexican border? Florida voters are divided.
A Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday morning found Florida voters are split 48 percent to 48 percent on whether the United States should build a wall along the Mexican border.
The idea, first floated by presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, is more popular among Florida men, 54 percent of whom said they would support a wall. The survey found 52 percent of Florida women opposed the idea.
Building a wall along Mexico’s border has been at the center of Trump’s presidential campaign. The New York Republican has said he would get the Mexican government to pay for the wall, saying he would do it by threatening to cut off the billions of dollars immigrants send back to the country.
The survey found 65 percent of millennials — voters between the ages of 18 and 34 — opposed the idea; 57 percent of voters between the ages of 50 and 64 support a wall. It’s also favored by while males, with 61 percent saying they supported building a wall.
The question over support of a wall was just one of several issues dealing with immigration in the Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll. Voters in Florida were also asked about their thoughts on illegal immigration.
The poll found 57 percent of Florida voters said people in the country illegally should be allowed to stay in the United States and eventually be allowed to apply for citizenship; while 11 percent of Floridians polled said they should be allowed to remain in the U.S., but not be allowed to apply for citizenship.
Twenty-five percent of Florida voters said people in the United States illegally should be required to leave.
Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of millennials supported allowing individuals in the United States illegally to stay and become citizens. The survey found 41 percent of Republicans said those people should be required to leave the country; while 40 percent stated that they should be allowed to stay and eventually become citizens.
Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,051 Florida voters using live interviews on cell phones and landlines from April 27 through May 8. The survey has a margin of error of 3 percent.
