Americans are increasingly bullish on a border wall but are souring on the government shutdown, according to two new polls out Sunday from CNN and The Washington Post.
The Washington Post reports that Americans are almost evenly split on whether they support a solid wall along the United States’ southern border, up from the beginning of the immigration battle between Democrats and Republicans in Congress. That level of support is up ten points from a similar poll taken in January of 2017.
But if President Donald Trump is making his case that his signature anti-illegal immigration measure is urgently needed, he’s not convincing Americans that a government shutdown is the way to get the wall built.
CNN found that “[t]he public generally is more apt to blame the President, with 55% saying he is more responsible for the shutdown than are Democrats in Congress, while 32% say the blame rests mostly with the Democrats. Another 9% say both are responsible.”
In The Washington Post poll, Trump fared only two points better; 53% of respondents blamed Trump and Republicans for the seemingly endless government shutdown, while 29% said the Democrats are making the situation worse.
There’s good news for Republicans, though, looking to obtain some sort of immigration reform compromise in ongoing budget negotiations: most wall supporters polled by The Washington Post want Republicans — and especially President Trump — to stand firm on making funding for the border wall part of the final budget package.
WaPo poll pretty gruesome for Trump…BUT support for The Wall has increased to 46% among RVs, & nearly half of wall *opponents* believe Dems should compromise to help end the partial shutdown. Best play for cornered GOP right now is to heavily emphasize need for compromise: pic.twitter.com/2q76M7nFHp
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 13, 2019
Opponents of the wall are evenly split on whether Democrats should be the ones to compromise, but only around a quarter of wall supporters believe that Republicans should abandon their efforts to curb illegal immigration in order to re-open the federal government.
The government shutdown is now well into its third week, making it the longest shutdown in history. Congress will return to session — and to efforts to end the shutdown — on Monday.