The headline from Investor’s Business Daily on their own poll uses the word “shock” – “Shock Poll: 59% Back Trump On Deportation of Illegals.” But as Jared Peterson wrote on these pages yesterday, for the last two years, Rasmussen polling has demonstrated a huge gap between the overwhelming majority of Americans and the political establishment of the GOP on immigration policy. The IBD polling, which mentions mandatory deportation, reinforces this stunning disconnect between politicians and the people they supposedly serve, a chasm that Donald Trump has spotted and used to his huge advantage. IBD editorializes:

The latest IBD/TIPP Poll asked 913 adults coast to coast if they "support or oppose mandatory deportation of illegal immigrants in the U.S." Not surprisingly, 87% of Trump supporters back the proposal. What's surprising is that 59% of the overall public does as well. Mandatory deportation gets majority support in all age groups except 18-24, every income group, among both women and men, at every level of educational achievement, and in rural, urban and suburban regions. More interesting still is the fact that 64% of independents and 55% of moderates support deportation. Even among Hispanics, the poll found 40% backed mandatory deportation — although the sample size is too small to make much of that number.

This reveals that people hate mass violation of the law, and resent those who tell them to get over it. The hard fact is that flouting the law by tolerating mass illegal immigration tells the law-abiding majority that they are fools. Fools for paying their taxes, fools for obeying regulations, fools for expecting that everyone else will follow the rules if they do.

The fact that the entire political establishment excuses mass lawlessness, seemingly because of ethnic politics, is deeply offensive. And IBD highlights the extreme condemnation of the proposal of Donald Trump to merely apply the law to these millions of lawbreakers:

"It's not conservative and it's not realistic and it does not embrace American values," said Jeb Bush. Sen. Lindsey Graham called it "absolute gibberish." Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer called the idea "crackpot" and "morally obscene." But the prize for overheated rhetoric goes to Hillary Clinton, who said Trump wants to "literally pull people out of their homes and their workplaces, round them up, put them, I don't know, in buses, boxcars, in order to take them across our border."

IBD is also skeptical about mass deportation:

This is not to say we endorse Trump's mandatory deportation plan, details of which he hasn't released. The cost and disruptions of such a plan, both economically and politically, could be enormous. The conservative American Action Forum, for example, figures it would take 20 years and $420 billion to deport the 12 million illegals here now.

But as I first explained on these pages, critics miss the implication of the few details Trump has provided. Under his scheme to provide rapid re-entry for the “good ones,” there would be no mass round-up necessary. Lured by the prospect of finally obtaining legal status, illegals would leave the country, probably with pre-approval for re-entry following a screening process that could take place while they are still in country. Statements Trump has made subsequent to the publication of my article are completely consistent with my interpretation of his proposal. Since he is not shy, I expect that he will flesh it out.

The important point is that it is entirely understandable that the American people resent open flouting of the law, and that they would welcome a program to end it.