Pew: Seventy-three percent say US doing ‘bad’ job on border under Biden administration
Anna Giaritelli
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Nearly 3 in 4 believe the government under President Joe Biden is doing a “bad” job handling the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to new polling data.
The nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington published the results of a survey on immigration Wednesday afternoon that revealed 73% said the government was doing a “somewhat bad” or “very bad” job handling the crisis, compared to 23% who said he was in good standing.
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When asked about the U.S. government’s handling of “the large number of people seeking asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico,” a whopping 62% of Democrats knocked the Biden administration for doing a “bad” job, compared to 35% who stuck by the Democratic president.
The June 5-11 survey found that views on the government’s ability to manage the border have worsened during Biden’s first two years in office, with negative ratings increasing from 68% to 73%.
A 2019 survey by Pew revealed that 65% of respondents said the U.S. government under then-President Donald Trump was doing a bad job, while 33% said he was performing well.
More view illegal immigration as a very big problem for the U.S. than last year — 47% now versus 38% then.
Concern over illegal immigration today is nearly as high as its highest point in 2021, shortly after Biden took office and the number of noncitizens crossing the border illegally jumped from 70,000 apprehensions per month to more than 200,000 apprehensions per month.
In that time, the number of immigrants encountered trying to enter at ports of entry without permission or who were arrested for crossing illegally has remained between 186,000 and 303,000 each month, according to publicly available data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Overwhelming majorities of both parties agreed on certain approaches to border and immigration policy.
Seventy-three percent of Democrats and 91% of Republicans said noncitizens should be required to apply for asylum before they travel to the U.S. border, something that the Department of Homeland Security has already begun to implement.
The DHS announced earlier this year that it would stand up processing sites in other countries in Central and South America where people seeking admission to the U.S. could visit for screening rather than migrate and pay cartels thousands of dollars to get them into the U.S.
By similar margins, members of both parties also agreed that the government should increase staffing levels at the border, reduce the number of people coming to the U.S. to seek asylum, and provide safe and sanitary conditions for asylum-seekers once they arrive in the U.S.
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Although the Pew report referred to all immigrants who illegally cross the border as “asylum-seekers,” seeking asylum is not a requirement to be released into the U.S., and some immigrants do not seek asylum.
The poll was conducted between June 5 and 11 among 5,115 U.S. adults surveyed online. The poll did not include a margin of error.