More Americans AGREE Than Disagree With Trump Saying That The 'Nation's Blood Is Being Poisoned' By Immigration

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Editor's note: This story by James Reinl, based on the DailyMail.com/TIPP Poll, appeared on the DailyMail website.

A startling number of Americans agree with Donald Trump's harsh language against immigrants, and his assertion that undocumented arrivals are 'poisoning the blood' of the nation, our survey shows.

A DailyMail.com/TIPP Poll reveals that more Americans agree with Trump's rhetoric than disagree with it — 47 percent of respondents said the Republican was 'correct' while 46 percent objected to his language.

That wafer thin difference is within the poll's margin of error — but nevertheless shows greater support for a stark message than many expected, shining light on a key issue in this year's presidential race.

'They're poisoning the blood of our country,' Trump said of undocumented immigrants at a rally in New Hampshire
Migrants take part in a caravan in southern Mexico this week, headed for the border with the US. Photo: STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images

Trump made his controversial comments last month at a campaign rally in New Hampshire, where he railed against the record number of migrants trying to cross the US-Mexico border illegally.

'They're poisoning the blood of our country,' Trump told his several thousand supporters in the city of Durham.

Immigrants were coming to the US from Asia and Africa in addition to South America, he added, saying: 'All over the world, they are pouring into our country.'

He promised to crack down on illegal immigration and restrict legal people flows, if elected to a second four-year term in office.

The comments echoed previous statements from Trump, but this time attracted widespread criticism as xenophobic and that they echoed rhetoric from Nazi Germany.

The campaign of Trump's Democratic rival, President Joe Biden, likened his words to those of Adolf Hitler.

Our nationwide survey of 1,247 voters found that nearly half said Trump spoke correctly, including 30 percent who agreed strongly with his comments.

Trump was compared to Adolf Hitler for his comments about immigrants 'poisoning the blood of our country.' Photo credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, via Wikimedia Commons
Mexico's Government dissolved the 'Exodus from Poverty' caravan last week, but members regrouped on 08 January in Chiapas, a state on the country's southern border. Photo: Getty Images

Similar numbers disagreed with the former president.

White respondents, men, and people aged over 25 were more likely to endorse Trump's message than others.

Unsurprisingly, Republican-leaning voters were much more likely to agree that immigrants were 'poisoning the blood' in America than were Democrats.

Trump is the leading candidate for the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nomination and has made border security a top theme of his campaign.

He vows to restore the tough policies from his 2017-2021 presidency, and implement new ones that further restrict people flows.

President Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has sought to enact more humane and orderly immigration policies but has struggled with record levels of migrants, a vulnerability for his re-election bid.

On the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly used inflammatory language to describe the border issue and slam Biden's policies.

Ever greater numbers of migrants have crossed the US-Mexico border and asked for asylum since Biden took office in January 2021.

US border agents have since made more than 5 million arrests of migrants making irregular crossings — that is, not through a controlled border station — over the southern frontier.

President Biden has called Trump, his main rival in this year's White House race, a threat to democracy. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, via Wikimedia Commons

The trend is fueled by ever more people fleeing political chaos in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

There were more than 10,000 arrests for illegal crossing per day over several days in December alone.

In cities including Chicago, New York and Denver, migrants who have no access to work permits sleep in police station foyers and in airports.

These scenes dominate the early phase of the 2024 presidential campaign, with Republicans excoriating Biden and weighing whether to impeach his Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Republicans want Biden to back more restrictive policies that would dramatically reduce asylum protections, among other things, and they believe they have leverage if the president wants them to authorize tens of billions in aid to Ukraine.

They also say migrants are straining budgets, and even such Democrats as New York Mayor Eric Adams say social services are being overwhelmed by newcomers.

A CBS News survey released on Sunday found that a staggering 93 percent of respondents said the frontier was in a 'crisis' or that border guards faced a 'very serious' or 'somewhat serious' issue of undocumented arrivals.

Only 7 percent of the 2,157 people surveyed said it was 'not much of a problem.'

The share of Americans who call it a crisis has shot up from 38 percent last May to 45 percent currently.

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