As much as every mainstream media outlet likes to fact-check President Donald Trump, the fact checkers were nowhere to be found on the day when Senator Bernie Sanders said 80 percent of Americans want amnesty for 1.8 million illegal aliens.<\/p>\n
Senator Sanders had an interview<\/a> last week on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union.\u201d He claimed that in the latest polls he has seen, \u201csome 80 percent of the American people believe that we should provide legal status to the 1.8 million people in the DACA program or eligible for DACA.\u201d Senator Sanders did not mention any poll by name.<\/p>\n That is a bold claim to make without actually naming any polls. The most recent poll Politico<\/a> could find that was close to Senator Sanders\u2019 claim was a Harvard CAPS-Harris<\/a> survey from February. If this is indeed the survey he intended to reference, the Harvard-Harris poll, like most polls on the topic, ask the question in a vacuum, or with mass deportation as the only other option. But that isn\u2019t the whole story.<\/p>\n First of all, there are only 690,000 current DACA recipients, not 1.8 million. The Harvard-Harris poll only asks about current DACA recipients, not those who may possibly be eligible but have not applied.<\/p>\n The survey also reveals that Americans believe that there must be policies in place to ensure against future illegal immigration. Furthermore, 84 percent of those polled want significant changes to our legal immigration policies, prioritizing the admission of immigrants on their ability to contribute to the United States, also known as merit-based immigration.<\/p>\n Here are some more numbers from the survey:<\/p>\n Senator Sanders then went on to call President Trump\u2019s immigration policies \u201cheartless\u201d and said the president is going in the \u201cwrong direction.\u201d The numbers from the Harvard CAPS-Harris survey say otherwise.<\/p>\n Americans agree more with President Trump than Senator Sanders on most immigration issues. Senator Sanders tried to cherry pick facts, but Americans aren\u2019t \u201cfeeling the Bern\u201d when it comes to his immigration policies. \n