A majority of likely voters say action should be taken against jurisdictions with sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey.
The poll found that 62 percent of likely voters think the Justice Department “should take legal action against cities that provide sanctuary for illegal immigrants.” Just 26 percent opposed the idea, and 12 percent were undecided.
On the separate question of whether the federal government should cut off funds to sanctuary cities, 58 percent of likely voters agreed, 32 percent disagreed, and 10 percent were undecided. Rasmussen notes that the results for this question have seen little movement since 2011.
The results come on the heels of the murder of Kathryn Steinle by a multiple-deportee, multiple-felon in San Francisco, a sanctuary city. Since her murder, law makers have introduced legislation to halt certain funding for such jurisdictions and requested the Justice Department take action to discourage such policies.
Rasmussen notes that Republicans and unaffiliated respondents were more likely to support actions against sanctuary cities than Democrats.
In 2013, when Judicial Watch and Breitbart News surveyed support for sanctuary cities, 51 percent of Americans either “strongly oppose[d]” (31 percent) or “somewhat oppose[d]” (20 percent) such policies.
The poll of 1,000 likely U.S. voters was conducted from July 8-9 and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.