Independent adults in the critical Midwest region back President Donald Trump’s immigration push, according to a Washington Post poll.

Forty percent of the Midwest independents say they are more likely to support Trump in 2020 because of his immigration policies, while 36 percent say those policies make them less likely to support Trump, according to the poll. Twenty-two percent say immigration policies are not a factor.

Almost two-thirds — 63 percent — of GOP-supporting adults support his immigration policies. Only 16 say they oppose the policies.

The Midwest data is important partly because the Democrats’ support for easy immigration is concentrated in the Democratic-dominated West and the Northeast. For example, 53 percent of the Post‘s respondents in the West and 57 percent of respondents in the Northwest say they oppose Trump’s immigration policies. Also, respondents who declare themselves to be Democrats or “lean Democratic” overwhelmingly say they oppose Trump’s immigration policies, in large part because they oppose Trump.

In 2016, Trump gained from Midwest opposition to cheap-labor immigration. Breitbart News reported in July 2016:

Donald Trump may be hoping to win the 2016 election by sweeping the Midwest states — and that’s the region which is most worried about losing jobs and wages to cheap-labor immigration, according to a new survey. Midwest respondents are far more likely to agree with a statement saying that “immigrants today are a burden on our country because they take our jobs, housing and health care” than were respondents in the South, West or Northeast, according to the July survey by Morning Consult and Vox.com. In fact, lower-income and middle-income women in the Midwest showed the most concern about the inflow of cheap-labor immigration into their communities, contradicting progressives’ expectations about immigration and “angry white men.”

The 2016 data was ignored by establishment and media pollsters through the 2016 election, ensuring a massive surprise on election night when Trump broke through the Democrats’ “blue wall.”

The new Washington Post poll of 1,001 adults likely also understates support for Trump’s immigration policies, which have been portrayed by Democrats and the media as racist and vindictive.

For example, the Washington Post polled adults, not voters. Voters tend to lean more Republican than non-voters.

The Post also ignored the economic impact of Trump’s “Hire American” policies which have pressured employers to bump up wages for their employees by more than 3 percent in 2018. That wage-raising impact is likely popular among voters, partly because the poll showed that many swing voters distrust the nation’s economic policies. The poll question asked: “Does Trump’s handling of illegal immigration make you more likely to support him for reelection in 2020, more likely to oppose him for reelection, or is it not a factor in your vote?”

Another question in the poll hints at hidden populist support for the economic impact of Trump’s immigration policies. The Washington Post asked, “Do you think the political system in this country mainly works to benefit (all people) or mainly works to benefit (those in power)? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?” Only 12 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of Republicans said the nation’s economic policies “works to benefit all people.”

Indiana restaurant workers are gaining wage increases, training & better conditions from employers in Pres. Donald Trump's "Hire American" low-immigration, tight-labor economy. Meanwhile, biz lobbyists & progressives urge more migration. https://t.co/iHpN38MaQD — Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) April 25, 2019

The Washington Post poll only asked people what they would say in response to questions — and did not try to tease out their preferences. That is a big issue because many Democrats’ opposition to Trump’s immigration policies is driven by their opposition to Trump. Before 2015, Democrats were split over immigration because of worry about the economic impact of cheap labor migration.

However, a Fox News poll in April indicated some of the hidden support for Trump’s immigration policies. The poll showed 52 percent of 1,005 registered voters said Trump’s policy on illegal immigrants is either “not tough enough” or “about right.” The same Fox poll also showed that 49 percent of respondents said the government is “not tough enough” or “about right” when responding to “migrants legally seeking asylum in the U.S.”

Business groups and Democrats tout the misleading, industry-funded “Nation of Immigrants” polls which pressure Americans to say they welcome migrants, including the roughly 670,000 DACA illegals.

The alternative “priority or fairness” polls — plus the 2016 election — show that voters in the polling booth put a much higher priority on helping their families, neighbors, and fellow nationals get decent jobs in a high-tech, high-immigration, low-wage economy. Each year, roughly four million young Americans join the workforce after graduating from high school or university. But the federal government then imports about 1.1 million legal immigrants, refreshes a resident population of roughly 1.5 million white-collar visa workers — including roughly 1 million H-1B workers — in addition to approximately 500,000 blue-collar visa workers, and also tolerates about eight million illegal workers and the inflow of hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants. This federal policy of flooding the market with cheap foreign white-collar graduates and blue-collar labor is intended to boost economic growth for investors. This policy works by shifting enormous wealth from young employees towards older investors even as it also widens wealth gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts children’s schools and college educations, pushes Americans away from high-tech careers, and sidelines millions of marginalized Americans, including many who are now struggling with fentanyl addictions. Mass migration moves business investment from the heartland to the coasts, explodes rents, shrivels real estate values in the Midwest, and rewards investors for creating low tech, labor-intensive workplaces.