Three-fourths of Maryland voters believe local officials in Maryland should be required to cooperate with federal immigration agents to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants accused of committing crimes, according to a new poll by Gonzales Research & Media Services.The poll found 76% of Maryland voters were in support of requiring cooperation with federal law enforcement officials on immigration, while 20% opposed this cooperation and 4% offered no opinion.Nearly all Republicans (96%) supported the requirement for cooperation, with only 3% saying they opposed it. A majority of Democrats (65%) also expressed their support, while 31% of that party’s voters said they opposed the requirement. Among Independents, 77% were in support and 16% were in opposition.As President Joe Biden prepares to leave the Oval Office in less than two weeks, a little over half of Marylanders approve of the job he is doing as president.That’s according to a new poll by Gonzales Research & Media Services, which found 55% of Maryland voters approve of Biden while 43% disapprove of him. Marylanders were split along party lines, with 83% of Democrats approving of Biden’s job and 85% of Republicans disapproving of him. For Independent voters, 35% approve and 58% disapprove.President-elect Donald Trump, who will return for his second term on Jan. 20, is disapproved of by more than half of Maryland voters. The poll found 34% of Maryland voters approve of Trump while 58% disapprove.Like Biden, Trump’s approval ratings fell fairly evenly down the political divide, with 84% of Republicans approving of him while 84% of Democrats disapprove of him. Among Independents, 31% approve and 54% disapprove of Trump.With Trump’s inauguration later this month, only 35% of Marylanders felt the country is moving in the right direction, while 59% said it is moving in the wrong direction.That’s a shift from Gonzales’ September poll, which found 50% of Marylanders felt the country was moving in the right direction and 45% said it was moving in the wrong direction.The change isn’t a huge surprise for Maryland, where Democrats outnumber Republicans about 2-to-1. In large part, sentiments about the country’s direction are influenced by which party is in power (or about to be) and which party the state’s electorate tends to support.“The answer is simple: politics presently in these United States is a sporting event…my team wins, I’m happy; my team loses, I’m sad,” Gonzales wrote.In September, 71% of Democrats said the country was heading in the right direction. That’s compared to this latest January poll that shows 72% of Democrats feel the country is heading in the wrong direction.Meanwhile, for Republicans, 82% said the country was heading in the wrong direction in September, while 60% said it is now heading in the right direction.Independents showed less of a shift, with 54% of Independent voters saying the country was heading in the wrong direction in both September and January (34% said it was heading in the right direction in January, down from 41% in September).Marylanders were divided on their predictions for their state in two years. Statewide, 44% said the state would be better off two years from now, while 24% said it would be worse off, and 32% said it would be about the same.Republicans were most optimistic, with 69% saying Maryland would be better off in two years. Meanwhile, Democrats were least optimistic, with 30% saying the state would be better off in two years. Falling in the middle, 45% said the state would be better off two years from now.The Gonzales poll surveyed 811 registered Maryland voters by phone from Dec. 27 through Jan. 4. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.