The latest polls of Michigan voters shows that widespread opposition to an increase in refugees in the state is a key factor in a surge for Donald Trump that now has him in a virtual tie with Hillary Clinton.
An Epic-MRA poll conducted of 600 likely Michigan voters in the usually reliably Democratic state between Sept. 10 and Sept. 13, shows that Hillary Clinton’s lead has shrunk to 3 points, 38 to 35, well within the poll’s four point margin of error.
Michigan has seen a dramatic increase in the arrival of refugees, particularly from Syria, in FY 2016 (up 43 percent for all refugees), an increase the Obama administration, with strong support from Hillary Clinton, wants to accelerate by another 38 percent in FY 2017.
While Hillary Clinton favors more refugees, Donald Trump opposes more refugees.
A significant majority of Michigan voters agree with Trump on this issue.
53 percent opposed “admitting more refugees to accommodate Syrians fleeing war in their country.” Only 36 percent favored the Hillary Clinton/Obama administration policy of increasing refugees.
The intensity and engagement of those who oppose more refugees appears to be translating to increasingly strong support for Trump.
“Placing refugees [in Michigan] seems like a great strategy for producing a second generation of alienated and unemployable candidates for jihad, much the same as those that inhabit the Muslim no-go zones of European countries, such as Belgium, France and the U.K.,” George Rasley wrote at ConservativeHQ.com.
“All of this has caused deep resentment in a state, and especially in a community like Flint, hard hit by globalization,” Rasley says. “This resentment is now beginning to affect voter attitudes in Michigan’s presidential election.”
“But the real bombshell for Hillary Clinton,” Rasley argues, “is the poll’s findings on Michigan voters’ attitudes on refugee resettlement.”
In a state hard-hit by unemployment caused by globalization importing thousands of unemployable or low-skilled “refugees” makes no sense to voters, who are looking for someone to champion their economic and cultural interests. Hillary Clinton has clearly put herself on the other side of that battle and that is a major reason why Donald Trump is surging in Michigan.
The federal government’s arrogant lack of responsiveness to legitimate local concerns about the economic, public health, and security costs of bringing so many refugees into the state only compounds the political problems for Hillary Clinton, as Breitbart News reported previously:
In June, L. Brooks Patterson, Oakland County Executive, demanded that Office of Refugee Resettlement director Robert Carey initiate legally required consultation proceedings with him prior to resettling refugees in his county. Carey told Patterson, in essence, the federal government did not intend to comply with the consultation requirements of the Refugee Act of 1980.
On Friday, a spokesperson for the city of Flint told Breitbart News, “city leaders have not been informed” by the federal government of plans to resettle 100 Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Flint has been beset by financial and public health problems since a 2014 drinking water crisis.
The recent revelation that nineteen refugees in Michigan have been diagnosed with active tuberculosis (TB) adds further support for Trump among the state’s voters.
The increasing voter opposition to refugees in Michigan puts Hillary Clinton in a difficult political position in the state over the next 53 days until the November election.
As opposition to more refugees in Michigan increases and gains momentum among voters, the pending Congressional debate and votes over the FY 2017 budget, will continue to thrust the issue of refugee resettlement in the public eye.
Congress is currently contemplating a Continuing Resolution to fund the government from October 1, the beginning of FY 2017, to December 9, a month after the election, rather than deal with the entire year’s budget.
Even the Continuing Resolution, however, will include funding for resettled refugees.
The Obama administration has stated it plans a 29 percent increase in the number of refugees arriving in the United States in FY 2017, up to 110,000 from 85,000 in FY 2016.
Continuing Resolutions typically maintain spending levels from the prior year. If that is the case this time, only last year’s levels of refugees in the country (85,000 as opposed to 110,000) and in Michigan (approximately 4,000 as opposed to the proposed 5,600 for FY 2017) will be budget authorized in the Continuing Resolution.
Resettlement agencies and their lobbyists, who were paid over $1 billion last year by the federal government, are expected to vigorously fight any efforts, even in the Continuing Resolution, to stay at FY 2016 levels.
As a result, Hillary Clinton may be forced to publicly support the resettlement agencies in their highly political lobbying efforts to increase refugees dramatically in the country as a whole, and in Michigan as well.
Should her resettlement agency allies win the pending Continuing Resolution budget battle, the recent polling in Michigan suggests that will hurt her even more at the polls in that state come November.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.