Poll: Americans Growing Less Supportive of Immigration

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Facts

  • A new Gallup poll published on Monday indicates that Americans are less supportive of US immigration levels as the southern border crisis continues, with about 63% of the respondents expressing dissatisfaction.1
  • The survey conducted between Jan. 2-22 among over 1K US adults found that only 28% of Americans are at least somewhat satisfied with the level of immigration in the US, the lowest recorded level of contentment since 2012.2
  • Forty percent of Americans — comprising 71% of Republicans, 36% of independents, and 19% of Democrats — stated that they want less migration, up from a total of 19% in January 2021.3
  • The publication of this poll comes as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is set to make his first trip to the border on Thursday, visiting Arizona along with four other Congressional Republicans.4
  • Gallup has regularly tested Americans' views on immigration since 2001, with pro-immigration sentiment peaking during Trump's time in office  — between 2018 and 2021 — when less than 30% of Americans wanted immigration to decrease.5
  • According to official data published in October 2022, the foreign-born population in the US hit a record high of 47.9M — one in seven US residents — following an increase of 2.9M since January 2021. Nearly 12M of them are estimated to be undocumented, including 61% of those that have entered the US since Pres. Biden took office.6

Sources: 1Daily Caller, 2Forbes, 3Breitbart, 4Axios, 5Washington Post and 6Cis.org.

Narratives

  • Republican narrative, as provided by The heritage foundation. It is no surprise that Americans have turned against the idea of rampant immigration after the Biden admin. has reversed Trump's merit-based immigration reform. The Southern Border crisis is now a full-on national security threat, and Democratic Party immigration policies are an unpopular disaster.
  • Democratic narrative, as provided by MSNBC. The poll's results reflect years of Republicans promoting anti-immigrant rhetoric targeting Latinos and Hispanics, deeming them criminals, and their claims that there is an 'invasion' going on at the southern border. These are xenophobic dog whistles, and the GOP must be held accountable for its toxic immigration rhetoric.

Predictions