Most white, evangelical Protestants say US doesn’t have responsibility to accept refugees: poll

More than two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants believe the U.S. does not have a responsibility to accept refugees, according to a survey released by the Pew Research Center on Thursday.

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Of the demographics that Pew surveyed, white evangelical Protestants were the most likely to say the U.S. has no responsibility to accept refugees; 68 percent of those evangelicals surveyed said that was their view.

Half of white mainline Protestants agreed, as did 45 percent of Catholics. A majority of black Protestants and religiously unaffiliated respondents all said the nation has a responsibility to admit refugees.

Overall, more than half — 51 percent — of Americans say the U.S. should accept refugees. Forty-three percent of respondents said the U.S. does not have a responsibility to allow refugees across its borders, a slight increase from an identical survey conducted by Pew in February 2017.

Along party lines, 68 percent of Republicans say the U.S. does not have the responsibility to accept refugees, while 74 percent of Democrats say it does.

The debate surrounding admitting refugees into the U.S. has ratcheted up as the Trump administration cracks down on who it says are allowed into the country. In April, The Economist reported that the U.S. was on track to admit fewer refugees in fiscal 2018 than it has in any year since 1980.

The number of Muslim refugees that enter the country is on pace to drop by about 85 percent, an analysis by The Economist found. The analysis came after President Trump vowed in September to allow no more than 45,000 refugees into the U.S. 

Pew Research Center conducted the survey from April 25-May 1 with a national sample of 1,503 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.