Aiexpress – A recent poll reveals a significant shift in public opinion, indicating that a majority of Americans now favor the construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border. This marks the first time such a sentiment has been recorded. Additionally, the poll highlights that three-fifths of the nation considers illegal immigration under President Biden’s administration to be a “very serious” issue.
According to a recent survey conducted by Monmouth University, 53% of the participants expressed their support for constructing a border barrier, while 46% indicated their opposition to the idea.
In contrast, back in September 2017, when former President Donald Trump was in office, only 35% of Americans expressed their support for the construction of a border wall, while a majority of 60% stated their opposition to it, according to the same pollster.
In April 2019, a recent survey showed that 42% of US adults expressed support for a border wall, while opposition to it had decreased to 56%.
In September 2015, there was a time when more Americans were in favor of building a wall than those who opposed it. Specifically, 48% of people supported the idea, while 43% were against it.
Moreover, a majority of Americans, approximately 61%, consider illegal immigration to be a “very serious problem.” Another 23% perceive it as “somewhat serious.” In contrast, only 15% of the population believes that the issue is either “not too serious” or “not at all serious.”
The majority of Republicans, 91%, and a significant portion of independents, 58%, agree that illegal immigration is a “very serious problem.” However, only 41% of Democrats share the same perspective.
According to Patrick Murray, a pollster from Monmouth, illegal immigration has become a significant issue in the current presidential election. Murray also stated that this particular issue is Biden’s weakest policy area, even among members of his own political party.
Support among Democrats for constructing a southern border wall has decreased by 14 percentage points over the past nine years, even though it is the only immigration policy from the Trump era that Biden has implemented to some extent.
Since assuming office, the president has reversed two significant policies of his predecessor. First, he ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases were being processed in the United States. Additionally, he put an end to the Title 42 mandate, which allowed for the immediate expulsion of migrants who entered the country illegally. This policy specifically targeted individuals from Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
According to the Monmouth poll, a majority of Americans, 61%, support the “Remain in Mexico” policy, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols. This policy entails requiring asylum seekers to stay south of the US border until their immigration court hearings.
A significant majority of Republicans (86%) and independents (60%) also support this policy, with only 35% opposing it. Interestingly, a majority of Democrats (54%) prefer that asylum seekers be allowed into the US before their court dates.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has urged Biden to revive the program.
The Senate failed to adopt additional border security legislation earlier this month as part of a larger $118 billion emergency supplemental funding bill that included military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
The subsequent $95 billion bill, which did not include border provisions, was approved by the upper chamber with the majority of Republicans supporting it.
Johnson dubbed the bigger bill as “dead on arrival” and has thus far dismissed the White House’s request to bring the second piece of legislation to a vote. Meanwhile, on February 13, the House impeached Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s Homeland Security secretary, for allegedly neglecting his duty to enforce federal immigration laws.
The Senate’s border bill grants President Biden the authority to expel migrants under a Title 42-style provision in situations where US border crossings exceed 5,000 per day over a span of one week. Additionally, the bill includes significant changes to asylum screening standards.
According to the Monmouth poll, the majority of respondents (33%) expressed their opposition to the legislation, while only 23% showed their support for it. Interestingly, almost half of the independents who participated in the survey were in favor of the legislation. However, a significant portion (45%) had no opinion on the matter.
According to a recent survey, nearly half of Americans (47%) expressed their concern that the bipartisan bill, which was negotiated by Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), did not have stringent measures to address the issue of illegal immigration.
That cohort includes more than three-quarters of Republicans (77%) and over half of independents (48%), with a slim majority of Democrats (51%) believing border enforcement was “about right.”.
However, only 41% of Democrats supported pressing on and enacting the law.
“These results illustrate why the border deal was dead on arrival,” he said. “The vast majority of rank-and-file Republicans and many independents believe it is too soft on illegal immigration, even if they don’t know exactly what’s in the legislation.”
“Senate GOP leadership could have tried to sell the bill, but that would have almost certainly been fruitless once Donald Trump weighed in against it,” he said.
Senate and House Republicans attacked the border plan when it was released for handing out billions of dollars to non-governmental organizations to shelter and settle migrants, as well as offer legal aid to unaccompanied youngsters with asylum applications.
They also stated that under the proposed legislation, the US border would never be closed since the president may suspend Title 42 authority at any moment if he deems it in the “national interest” to do so.
Nearly half (48%) of Monmouth survey respondents blamed both parties for the bill’s defeat, with 36% saying Republicans were more culpable and 13% saying Democrats were more to blame.
The White House said Monday that the president will travel to Brownsville, Texas, on Thursday to meet with Border Patrol agents, law enforcement, and local elected leaders, as well as repeat calls for the bipartisan border bill.
The pressure campaign comes as a Venezuelan national, who was eligible for deportation after being charged with child endangerment in Queens last year, faces additional charges of murdering a Georgia nursing student.
The case has heightened fears about an upsurge in violent crime tied to the migrant influx, as 7.2 million people have crossed the border since Biden took office, with an additional 1.8 million “gotaways” evading capture upon entering the United States.
The poll indicated that 32% of respondents believe illegal immigrants are more likely to conduct serious crimes such as rape or murder, up 11% from 2019 and 15% since 2015.
However, 39% believed illegal immigrants were just as violent as US citizens.
Only 24% claimed they were less inclined to commit such crimes than Americans.
The Monmouth University poll, conducted from February 8 to 12, surveyed 902 US adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
