By Casey Harper (The Center Square)
The majority of Americans are unhappy with current immigration policy under President Joe Biden.
Gallup released new polling data Monday showing that 58% of surveyed Americans are dissatisfied with the current level of immigration, compared to 34% who are satisfied.
“This marks an eight-percentage-point increase in dissatisfaction since last year and a return to the 2019-2020 range,” Gallup said.
The poll also found that since Biden took office, dissatisfied Americans are more likely to favor less immigration.
“Last year, those dissatisfied were about equally as likely to favor an increase as a decrease, but now the predominant view among the dissatisfied is for less immigration,” Gallup said. The proportion who want less immigration has nearly doubled from 19% in 2021 and is well above where it was in 2019 (23%) and 2020 (25%). At the same time, calls for more immigration into the country have dropped.”
The poll comes as illegal border crossings have significantly increased under Biden. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that they are arresting about 3,000 people per day attempting to enter the country illegally, which does not count those entrants who go unnoticed.
“While CBP continues to experience an increase in attempted monthly border crossings as seen since last April, the uptick seems to be occurring in a small fraction of locations across the southwest border, which is consistent with trends in years past,” said CBP Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner Troy Miller.
Gallup collected the data Jan. 3 through the 16th and found dissatisfied Independents are much more likely to favor decreased immigration levels.
“The vast majority of Republicans are dissatisfied with immigration and would like to see it decreased (69%), while 15% do not express a preference and 3% favor it being increased,” Gallup said. “While a majority of Democrats are satisfied with immigration, those who are dissatisfied are about evenly divided in their preferences for each of the three options. Dissatisfied independents are more than three times as likely to say they would like it to be decreased rather than increased.”
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Another Gallup poll in November found that only 31% of Americans favor Biden’s handling of immigration with 66% disapproving of the work he has done on the issue.
“Approval of Biden’s handling of immigration was first tracked by Gallup in August, and it has fallen 10 points, to 31%, since then,” Gallup said. “That change is owed mostly to a 15-point decline among Democrats, to 61%, while Republicans’ (5%) and independents’ (32%) ratings are essentially steady.”
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.