March 08, 2017
It was one of candidate Donald Trump's biggest campaign themes: he would build a wall along the U.S. Mexican border to keep out the "bad hombres."
The threat posed by illegal immigration played deep into conservative fears, and his repeated promise connected with many of the voters who carried him to the White House.
Indeed, the construction of a wall is favored by a strong majority of Republicans.
But the Pew Research Center reported Wednesday that Republicans' support for the wall is based on promixity: in short, the closer they live to the border, the less likely they are to support the wall.
According to Pew:
A survey last month by Pew Research Center found that 35% of the public favored building a wall along the entire U.S-Mexican border, while 62% were opposed. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (74%) supported building the wall, compared with just 8% of Democrats and Democratic leaners.
A new analysis of this data finds that 63% of Republicans who live less than 350 miles from the border support building the wall, compared with 34% who oppose the wall. Those who live at least 350 miles away from the border, by contrast, are more supportive of the wall (76% favor, 21% oppose).
Read the full story on Pew Research Center's analysis.
