A nationwide poll of 1,500 registered voters found that immigration was the number one issue that most voters wanted Congress and/or the president of the United States to address. The poll also found that voters are more likely to trust Republicans in Congress than Democrats to fix the immigration system and secure the border.
The poll was sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, ALG Research, and the firm Fabarazio Lee and conducted between November 15 and November 22.
The poll asked, “What is the most important issue that you want the President and U.S. Congress to make a priority?” and left it open-ended — meaning voters weren’t presented with options to select from. In response, 13% of voters listed some form of an immigration issue as their main concern that they wanted Congress and the president to address.
Voters’ answers included worries about the immigration system, the U.S.-Mexico border or the border in general — including closing the border — migrants, and illegal immigration.
The poll also asked voters: “Between the Democrats in Congress and the Republicans in Congress, who in your opinion is BEST ABLE to handle each of the following issues? If you think they are both equally able to handle an issue, or neither is, just say so.”
A plurality of voters — 41% — said they thought Republicans in Congress were best able to fix the immigration system while 27% said they trusted Democrats. When asked which political party they thought was best able to secure the border, 52% of respondents said that they thought Republicans were better suited to secure the border and only 16% of respondents said they trusted Democrats in Congress.
In response to the findings, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), tweeted, “It’s immigration, stupid!”
It’s immigration, stupid! pic.twitter.com/ov9M2v2z71
— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) December 8, 2021
This past spring, Banks and the RSC released a memo stating that contrary to what the Biden administration had been saying about the border crisis, “what is happening at the border is not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster.”
“This disaster is the extremely predictable result of the Biden Administration’s inconceivable decision to terminate – over the profound objections of career law enforcement professionals – the Trump Administration’s proven border security measures, ” the memo continued, “Trump FIXED it, Biden BROKE it. It’s just that simple.”
As a remedy, the RSC proposed focusing on the following four categories to restore order and secure the border alongside an overhaul of our entire immigration system:
National Security: Immigration policy should protect our national security by protecting the American people from terrorism, cartels, and other threats to their safety;
America First: Immigration policy should prioritize American workers first, help grow our middle class, raise wages, and enhance economic opportunity for all lawful residents well;
Rule of Law: Immigration policy should respect the rule of law, along with immigrants that honor our legal immigration processes, rather than incentivize law breaking.
Patriotic Assimilation: Immigration policy should aim to assimilate legal immigrants into the American family so they too can take pride in our values, history, and heritage.
Since that memo, the Biden administration’s handling of the border has only worsened with individuals coming to the border from all over the world and deportations decreasing by 90%.
It should be noted that the ideological makeup of the Journal poll was fairly evenly split and included slightly more Democrats than Republicans.
According to the poll findings, 26% of those polled described themselves as liberal or very liberal, 30% said they were moderate, 40% said conservative or very conservative, and 4% didn’t know or refused to answer.
Forty-two percent of those polled said they leaned Democrat or were Democrat, 40% said they leaned Republican or were Republican, 15% said they were independent or something else, and 3% didn’t know what they were.
The full poll can be found here.