The Breitbart/Gravis Marketing poll released on Friday shows Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump in the presidential election by a 44 percent to 40 percent margin, but her support for increasing the number of refugees arriving in the United States is opposed by a majority of voters and many of her own supporters as well.
Fifty-nine percent of likely voters disapprove of Hillary Clinton’s plan to increase the number of Syrian refugees coming into the United States from 10,000 this year to 65,000 annually.
Only 25 percent of likely voters approve of her plan, while 15 percent are unsure.
Opposition to Clinton’s plan to increase Syrian refugees is slightly greater than opposition to President Obama’s proposal to increase the number of refugees coming into the United States by 29 percent next year to 110,000, up from 85,000 this year, a policy that Clinton also supports.
Fifty-six percent of likely voters oppose this increase in refugees.
Only 29 percent of likely voters approve of the Obama administration refugee plan for FY 2017, while 16 percent are unsure.
“This issue that has happened over refugees…there’s great disapproval of both that and her [Hillary Clinton’s] effort to expand them,” pollster Pat Caddell told Matt Boyle on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Daily Friday.
“What you see are a cluster of issues, whether it’s anti-establishment in the foreign policy area or the refugee issue, they actually break Trump’s way, those issues.”
Even more troubling for Clinton is the fact that a significant minority of her own supporters oppose her policies to increase the number of refugees.
Only 52 percent of likely voters who say they are going to vote for Hillary Clinton approve of her plan to increase Syrian refugees. Twenty-four percent of people who say they are going to vote for Hillary disapprove of her plan to increase Syrian refugees, and an equal number–24 percent–are unsure.
Among undecided likely voters, only two percent approve of Hillary’s Syrian refugee plan. Eighty percent disapprove of her Syrian refugee plan.
Not surprisingly, 99 percent of likely voters who say they are going to vote for Donald Trump disapprove of her Syrian refugee plan.
Clinton’s support for increasing refugees, contrasted with Donald Trump’s opposition to such increases, appears to be hurting her in key battleground states, and even some states, like Michigan, that are traditionally solidly Democratic.
In Michigan, which has seen a significant increase in refugees overall and Syrian refugees in particular, for instance, a recent poll found that Clinton leads Trump by only three points, within the margin of error.
That same poll shows that 53 percent of Michigan residents oppose increasing the number of refugees coming to the state.
Local resettlement agencies, whose plans are almost always rubber-stamped by the Obama administration, have recently submitted plans to the Department of State that indicate they want to increase the number of refugees resettled in the state in FY 2017 by 38 percent, to 5,600, up from 4,000 in FY 2016.
Public health and security problems related to an increased number of refugees are a concern in several other states whose vote may turn the outcome of the election.
Security problems were highlighted on Saturday when Dahir Adan, a Somali refugee, stabbed ten people in a Minnesota mall and Ahmad Khan Rahami, an Afghan immigrant, allegedly detonated bombs in New Jersey and New York City.
Public health concerns exist in several states where refugees have been diagnosed with active tuberculosis (TB), as well.
In Michigan, nineteen refugees have been diagnosed with active TB over the past six years. In Ohio, eleven refugees in one county alone were diagnosed with active TB. In Colorado, sixteen refugees have been diagnosed with active TB, and in Wisconsin, 27 refugees have been diagnosed with the disease.