Immigration is not only the most important topic facing the country today, according to most people, but vast majorities not only believe that President Joe Biden already has the necessary legal power to fix the border and that he is not doing enough to enforce existing immigration law, but they also oppose the bipartisan Senate border bill because it was not tough enough on border security.
The February Harvard-Harris poll found that 36% of adults identified immigration as “the most important issue facing the country today” compared to 33% who named inflation. Just 13% mentioned climate change, and only 5% named “January 6th.”
Asked to name Biden’s “biggest failure as president,” 44% of adults chose “created an open borders policy and a historic flood of immigrants” compared to just 9% who said that he “has not done enough to support Israel and Ukraine.”
In January, Biden tried to address his failure to secure the border by blaming Congress. He said new legislation was needed to fix the problem. The public isn’t buying it. When asked if the Biden administration already “has the legal power it needs to address border security,” 54% said new legislation was not needed. Another 57% said the Biden administration was willfully not “enforcing border security and immigration laws.”
Asked specifically if they supported the Senate’s “compromise bill on immigration and border security,” 55% said they supported former President Donald Trump’s effort to kill the bill.
Separately, a new Monmouth University poll found that just 23% support the Senate border bill and that 47% said it was “not tough enough” on border security. Just 12% said the bill was “too tough.”
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Both of the polls were completed before the news broke that an immigrant from Venezuela who was released into the country by Biden after illegally crossing the border had been charged in the murder of a Georgia nursing student.
Democrats who think they can use Republican opposition to the Senate border bill to “flip the script” on immigration may want to take a look at these two polls. It seems the public has noticed that the Senate bill, which mandates the catch and release of immigrants arrested after illegally crossing the southern border, would only make the existing crisis worse.