AMHERST — Almost a third of Republicans say they agree with former President Donald Trump’s claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the country,” a recent University of Massachusetts poll has found.

The poll, which also questioned respondents on issues such as racism, reparations and diversity, equity and inclusion, shows that a growing number of Americans appear to be embracing xenophobic attitudes, co-director Jesse Rhodes said in a statement.

“Nearly 40% of Americans believe that increased immigration threatens American culture and identity,” Rhodes stated, “and an even larger faction, 43%, believe that political elites are welcoming immigrants to replace the current population with obedient voters who will vote for them.”

While many Americans endorse tenets of the “Great Replacement Theory,” Rhodes said, “a majority (53%) still embraces the belief that racial and ethnic diversity is a source of national strength.”

Poll co-director and political science professor Tatishe Nteta noted that majorities also support what would be sweeping immigration reforms, most notably allowing the children of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally to gain citizenship (63%) and providing a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s tens of millions of undocumented citizens (52%).

“Majorities of Americans recognize the continued privilege experienced by white Americans (53%), express anger at the continued existence and influence of racism (72%) and push back on the notion that racial problems are isolated and rare situations (52%),” Nteta stated.

At the same time, the poll shows that four in 10 Americans (41%) agree with the idea, expressed recently by Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, that the issue of states’ rights was the main cause of the Civil War. Strong majorities of Republicans, conservatives, and Trump voters subscribe to this notion, Nteta said.

Support for federal reparations for the descendants of Black slaves, which rose to 38% among all Americans following the murder of George Floyd and the reignition of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, has declined by 4%, according to the poll results.

But support for diversity initiatives is, perhaps surprisingly, somewhat strong, the pollsters found.

Roughly half the respondents said they hadn’t heard much or anything about DEI, poll co-director Raymond La Raja stated, and were not opposed to the idea.

“Moreover, the vast majority of Americans believe that many professions actually should receive DEI training, including medical professionals (71%), teachers (71%), members of the armed forces (70%) and especially police officers (73%),” LaRaja said.

The poll also questioned people about what constitutes a medical emergency during pregnancy, often the only exception allowed in states that restrict abortion rights. Predictably, it found divergent views between Republicans and Democrats.

Partisans agree a health provider should be among those making the final decision about whether an abortion is medically necessary, La Raja said.

But while seven in 10 Democrats say a pregnant woman should make the final decision about medical necessity, fewer than four in 10 Republicans feel that way.

The poll of 1,064 respondents was conducted Jan. 25-30 by YouGov. The margin of error is 3.7%.