Wide swaths of the American electorate are unhappy with how President Joe Biden is managing record levels of illegal immigration across the southern border, new polling from the Associated Press indicates.
Over two-thirds, 68 percent of Americans, disapprove of how Biden is handling immigration compared to 31 percent who approve, according to a poll taken in late March by the AP and NORC. A slight majority, 56 percent of Democrats approve of Biden’s handling of immigration, a far greater number than the 20 percent of independents and 9 percent of Republicans in support of Biden’s immigration policy.
Nearly half, 48 percent, blame President Biden for the border crisis, and 46 percent put blame on congressional Democrats. Congressional Republicans were also blamed by 41 percent of voters and 35 percent blamed former president Donald Trump.
Immigration is important or very important personally to 58 percent of adults, and 62 percent believe immigrants have had a major impact on the country at large over the past five years. A smaller number, 29 percent, say immigrants have impacted their communities in a major way.
Democrats and Republicans are deeply divided on whether immigrants are positive or negative for the country. The majority of Democrats view immigrants as contributing to economic growth and cultural enrichment, positions shared by less than four in ten Republicans.
The Republican respondents are particularly wary of the risks posed by illegal immigrants in terms of welfare, jobs, crime and voting illegally. These fears are significantly less present in Republican views of legal immigrants. The AP-NORC poll sampled 1,282 adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
Polling from Gallup taken last month found immigration remained the number one concern held by Americans after surging to the top spot in February. Two-thirds of those surveyed by Gallup worry about illegal immigration a great deal or a fair amount. Republicans and independents were much more likely than Democrats to worry about immigration. Gallup randomly sampled 1,016 national adults with a four point margin of error either way.
A poll from Pew Research in February shows 45 percent of Americans view illegal immigration across southern border as a crisis and another 32 percent consider it a major problem. Eight in ten Americans believe the government is doing a very bad or somewhat bad job tackling the migrant crisis, Pew Research found. The poll relied on a sample of 5,140 nationally selected adults with a plus or minus 1.7 percent margin of error.