Three years in, poll shows most voters still underestimate Biden border crisis
Conn Carroll
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As President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans negotiate a deal over more spending on Ukraine’s defense of its border in exchange for policy reforms to secure our southern border, a new poll shows that not only do a majority of voters already consider our border crisis a “very serious” problem, but that the vast majority of voters significantly underestimate the severity of the crisis Biden has created.
According to the latest Harvard/Harris poll, 52% of registered voters say illegal immigration is a “very serious” issue for the country right now. Another 30% say the problem is “somewhat serious,” while only 4% say it is “not at all serious.”
WHY ENDING PAROLE IS ESSENTIAL FOR BORDER SECURITY
Last year at this exact time, the same poll found just 46% of voters said illegal immigration was a “very serious” problem, compared to 35% who said it was “somewhat serious” and 6% who said it was “not at all serious.”
More interesting, however, is that when asked to guess how many migrants are being arrested for illegally crossing the border, 75% of voters said less than 1 million. Another 11% said between 1 million and 2 million, and 6% said between 2 million and 3 million. Only 8% of voters correctly said that over 3 million illegal immigrants have been arrested for illegally crossing the southern border this year.
After being informed of the true scale of the problem, a full 70% of voters said they supported “stricter policies to reduce the flow of people coming across the border” instead of continuing “current policies.”
Asked separately, “Overall, would you say that Donald Trump or Joe Biden have better policies on immigration,” a full 57% of voters, including 60% of independents, chose Trump’s immigration policies.
That result is actually far better for Biden than a similarly worded question last year. Last year, instead of using Trump’s name, the pollsters asked, “Do you think that people who cross the border with Mexico illegally should be turned back to Mexico or released into the US with a court date?”
The first policy, “people who cross the border with Mexico illegally should be turned back to Mexico,” is the Trump policy. The second policy, “released into the US with a court date,” is Biden’s policy.
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Left with just the description of the policies and not the name attached, 68% of voters chose “turned back to Mexico” compared to just 32% who chose “released into the US with a court date.” And that is from last year when fewer voters believed illegal immigration was a serious problem.
Without Trump’s name scaring people away, imagine what Congress could achieve in solving Biden’s border crisis.