How Americans really feel about deporting immigrants—3 charts explain the conflicting headlines from recent polls

Donald Trump promised to carry out the "largest deportation" operation in U.S. history, targeting all migrants "who violated the law coming into this country" Peter Bergen : Polls often ask people's opinion of deportation in one question, and their opinion of legalization in another.

He says studies show people make better decisions about complex, high-stakes problems when they think about multiple courses of action, not narrow in on one option.

Bergen says polls show public support for deportation has increased since 2016 .

A clear majority of people in the U.S. would rather give undocumented immigrants a path to legal status than have them deported.

Polls that seem to contradict this conclusion by showing majority support for mass deportation have used the less reliable separate-questions technique.

Democrats ' opinions have remained steady for eight years , with about 90% supporting legalization and 10% favoring deportation.

If Trump has a "powerful mandate" on immigration, it's for getting legal authorization for immigrants who've lived in the United States a long time without it—not deporting them.