Majority of Americans Support a Border Wall: Poll

The USA/Mexico border wall in Tijuana, Mexico, on Sept. 10, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

A majority of Americans support building a wall along a border with neighboring Mexico amid the southern border crisis that witnessed an influx of illegal immigrants into the country, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University.

The poll, released on Oct. 17, shows that 52 percent of American voters support the U.S.-Mexico border wall, marking the first time over half of the voters supported the construction of a border wall with Mexico since the question was first raised in Nov. 2016 by the Quinnipiac University Poll. Forty-four percent of voters are against the border wall.

The poll results were divided along political party lines. About nine out of ten Republicans (91 percent) support the construction of the border wall, while nearly eight out of ten Democrats (78 percent) oppose it. Independents are split, with 51 percent in favor of building a border wall and 46 percent against it.

“Build the Wall, the rallying cry that was vilified and shot down during the Trump administration, makes a comeback, buoyed by Republican voters and no doubt resuscitated by an unresolved border crisis,” Tim Malloy, Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst, said in a statement accompanying the result.

The poll also found that 55 percent of voters view the influx of migrants seeking sanctuary in the United States as a crisis, while 31 percent consider it a problem but not a crisis, and 11 percent don’t see it as a problem at all.

Furthermore, thirty-one percent of voters are open to welcoming migrants seeking sanctuary in their community. Another 37 percent would like to welcome such migrants but believe their community cannot accommodate them. Meanwhile, 27 percent are opposed to welcoming migrants into their community.

The poll was conducted among 1,552 self-identified registered voters from Oct. 12 to 16 with a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

Last week, another poll from Fox News also found the same result, with a higher number of Americans (57 percent) in favor of building a border wall. The poll showed that 70 percent of the voters said the current level of border security is not strict enough, while the same number think the country’s immigration system has been broken for decades.

The latest findings are in contrast with the past polls where the majority of Americans opposed the building of a border wall. Pew Research Poll in January 2019 found 58 percent of Americans were against constructing a border wall, while a Gallup poll in February 2019 showed 60 percent of Americans were against the border wall.

Border Wall Construction Resumed

The findings come at the time the Biden administration has decided to resume the construction of the border wall that it was once strongly critical of the Trump administration as the country has been facing an influx of illegal immigrants along the U.S-Mexico border.

Early this month, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas waived dozens of federal regulations—26 in total—in order to fast-track the construction of roads and barriers along the southern border in Texas.

The new barriers will be built within the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, an area designated as a “high illegal entry” zone. The construction will occur in the vicinity of the Falcon Dam, the Arroyo Morteros Tract, the Las Ruinas Tract, the Arroyo Ramirez Tract, intersections of major roads such as Perez Road and U.S. Highway 83, and various tracts within the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

Mr. Mayorkas issued the waiver on Oct. 4, citing U.S. Border Patrol figures showing that more than 245,000 migrants have illegally crossed the border at Starr County since early August.

DHS intends to fund the construction project using appropriations allocated by Congress during the Trump administration in 2019 to build the border wall in the Rio Grande Valley.

The decision for the border wall resumption prompted backlash from both Republicans and Democrats, which is seen as a sign of policy reversal from the administration.

According to the Fox News poll, Biden gets the lowest ratings on border security to date, with only 30 percent approval and 66 percent disapproval. The disapproval is significantly high among most Republicans (93 percent) and quite substantial among independents (75 percent), while a majority of Democrats (56 percent) approve.

After taking office in January 2021, Biden halted ongoing construction on the border wall, which started under the Trump administration. As a result, along with growing waves of illegal immigrants, the ending of the wall construction leaves materials lying unused along the border, which cost the United States at least $72 million, according to some estimates.

Caden Pearson contributed to this report.