Worry about illegal immigration holds at near two-decade high: Gallup
https://news.yahoo.com/worry-illegal-immigration-holds-near-130349755.html
The public’s worry over illegal immigration is close to a two-decade high ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday.
In a poll conducted March 1-18, 41 percent said they worry a great deal about illegal immigration, the highest total since 2007, when 45 percent of respondents said they were concerned a great deal about the issue.
Overall, around 60 percent of adults said they worry at least a fair amount about illegal immigration.
Only 17 percent of those surveyed said they worry about immigration a little while 23 percent said they don’t worry at all about the issue.
The poll was conducted before the Biden administration announced it was dropping Title 42, which allowed Border Patrol to deny asylum claims from migrants due to the pandemic and allowed migrants to be deported easier.
Gallup’s polling found the issue has become more partisan throughout the years, with Democrats and Republicans now heading in opposite directions in their concerns on the issue.
Democrats have shifted toward less concern about illegal immigration, with only 18 percent saying they are concerned a great deal about the issue while 44 percent say they don’t worry at all.
In line with this sentiment, Democrats largely praised the Biden administration’s retraction of Title 42, with some saying it should have been done sooner.
For Republicans, worry has increased in the past two decades, with 68 percent concerned about illegal immigration, down from 76 percent last year but up significantly from 29 percent in 2001, according to the poll.
Republicans have sounded the alarm over Title 42, saying the upcoming halt on it in May will cause an influx of illegal immigration at the border.
Independents are seeing a trend toward increasing worry about immigration with 39 percent worried a great deal, up from 30 percent in 2018.
Concern about immigration also varies by region, with the South worrying the most about the issue as 48 percent said it worries them a great deal. The second closest is the East, with the poll saying 41 percent of respondents from the area are worried a great deal about illegal immigration.
The results come as a group of bipartisan senators said they would be getting together to restart immigration reform talks.
“The only way that we’re going to get real progress is have a four pillar discussion — so immigration reform, DACA, border security and then I think asylum reform is pretty important particularly with that’s going on with Title 42,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said, who is bringing the group together with the help of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
The poll surveyed 1,017 adults and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Comments are closed.
