As the border crisis drags on, a newly released Harvard/Harris poll delivers a strong rebuke to President Biden’s immigration policies. The results show that 80 percent of Americans consider illegal immigration to be of serious concern, 64 percent wish to “issue new, stricter policies to reduce the flow of people across the border,” and 67 percent “support turning illegal immigrants back to Mexico.”
Of course this is not surprising as the influx of migrants at the border has reached a high not seen in two decades, all while deportations have reached a record low.
Additionally, a majority of Americans believe President Biden’s executive orders encourage illegal immigration and that former President Trump’s immigration policies should have been left in place with 68 percent and 55 percent of American voters expressing those views, respectively.
President Biden has made reversing Trump era immigration policies a top priority during his first five months in office. Since the start of his administration, President Biden has halted the construction of the border wall, ended the Remain in Mexico policy (MPP), revived and expanded the Central American Minors (CAM) program, and reinstituted catch and release. To add insult to injury, President Biden is about to end Title 42 expulsions, a policy that was invoked by the Trump administration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These dismal approval numbers for the president’s handling of immigration matters are nothing especially new. A Harvard/Harris poll from early March showed that 67 percent of respondents opposed President Biden’s revival of catch and release, while an NPR/Marist poll from early April showed that only 34 percent of respondents approved of President Biden’s handling of immigration, with a majority (53 percent) disapproving.
It is worth noting that these polling results represent more than just your typical partisan divide. In this same poll, President Biden received strong approval from a large swath of the American populous on several key issues including job/economy (61 percent approval) and COVID-19 response (69 percent approval).
The best takeaway for the Biden administration would be to listen to the American people and secure the Southwest border. Americans across the political spectrum understand that an unsecured border is bad for the safety and security of our nation.