The online survey also found that 46 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of Democrats said they would end birthright citizenship guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The Harris Poll conducted for Axios surveyed 6,251 adults between March and April 2024.
“I was surprised at the public support for large-scale deportations,” Mark Penn, chairman of The Harris Poll and pollster for former President Bill Clinton, told Axios.
Participants included Republicans, Democrats, and independents across multiple generations, from Baby Boomers to Generation Z. The poll has a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points.
According to the poll, the majority of those surveyed said the Biden administration is “most responsible” for the immigration crisis over any other political or structural factor.
“I think they’re just sending a message to politicians: ‘Get this under control,’” Mr. Penn said, adding that Americans are warning President Joe Biden that “efforts to shift responsibility for the issue to Trump are not going to work.”
Nearly two-thirds surveyed said they believe illegal immigration is a “real crisis, not a politically driven media narrative.”
Americans also appear to be open to former Donald President Trump’s plan to address record numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the border into the United States if he wins reelection in November.
President Trump has repeatedly vowed the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” starting on day one if he returns to the White House.
- Increased crime rates, drugs, and violence (21 percent)
- Additional costs to taxpayers (18 percent)
- Risk of terrorism and national security (17 percent)
According to Axios, 64 percent of Americans “wrongly believe immigrants receive more in welfare and benefits than they pay in taxes,” and 56 percent “wrongly believe illegal immigration is linked to spiking U.S. crime rates.”
The survey found strong support for legal methods of immigration, adding that “illegal” immigration causes anxiety.
- Support for expanding legal pathways for orderly immigration (58 percent).
- Asylum seekers with legitimate cases should be protected (46 percent).
- Illegal immigration causes major issues in communities (68 percent).
- Legal immigration causes major issues in communities (27 percent).
- The United States should make it easier to enter legally to seek a better life (65 percent).
Democrats Call for Increased Border Security
A handful of House Democrats on Wednesday urged President Biden to reinstate the Trump-era border immigration policies just hours after he signed a $95 billion foreign aid package into law.Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez (D-Wash.), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Mary Peltola (D-Alaska), Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), and Don Davis (D-N.C.) said in a joint statement that they “strongly agree” with the National Border Patrol Council—a labor union—that “Congress and the President must act and bring order to the Southern border.”
“Our national security interests don’t stop at our physical borders,” they wrote on April 24. “That is why we voted to send more weapons to Ukraine for its fight against Russia. The lesson of Pearl Harbor must not be forgotten: appeasement invites aggression against us. As Speaker Johnson stated last week, we would rather send ‘bullets than American boys.’”
The lawmakers ended their statement with a call for the president to use his authority to expedite deportations of some illegal immigrants to Mexico and for Congress to pass legislation that would “give Border Patrol back the expulsion authority that expired last year.”
