Share of Americans Opposed to Immigration Doubles Under Biden

A Border Patrol agent instructs illegal immigrants who crossed the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Dec. 19, 2022. John Moore/Getty Images

The number of Americans calling for less immigration has doubled under President Joe Biden’s administration, according to a Gallup survey published on Feb. 13

The survey was conducted between Jan. 2–22 among a random sample of 1,011 adults aged 18 and older living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

It has a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points.

The survey found that 40 percent of Americans want less immigration into the United States, up from 19 percent in January 2021 and 35 percent in 2022, although this was still not as high as it reached in the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks when it ranged from 44 percent to 52 percent.

It is, however, the highest since 2016, according to Gallup.

The desire to curb immigration has increased across all party groups since 2021 but remains higher among Republicans than independents or Democrats.

Of the 40 percent who are calling for less immigration into the United States, 71 percent were Republicans, 36 percent were independents, and 19 percent were Democrats, according to the poll.

Americans Increasingly Unsatisfied with Soaring Immigration

“Republicans’ displeasure with immigration for being too high is now the highest Gallup has recorded for that party. On the other hand, despite increasing in recent years, this viewpoint is less common today among independents and especially Democrats than it was in the post-9/11 years,” Gallup noted.

Meanwhile, overall satisfaction with the level of immigration dropped 6 points, from 34 percent in January 2022 to 28 percent today, the lowest reading in a decade, according to the survey.

A total of 8 percent said they are dissatisfied with the level of immigration because they want to see more immigration, while the remaining 15 percent are either unsure why they feel that way or want immigration to remain the same.

The latest survey comes amid a surge in illegal aliens crossing the U.S. Southern border, prompting humanitarian and political problems, which many Republican lawmakers have blamed on Bidens “open border policies.”

House Republicans have vowed to hold Biden accountable for the situation and are currently probing the administration’s handling of the U.S. southern border.

At a hearing earlier this month, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told his fellow lawmakers that over 4.5 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since Biden took office, of which at least 38 have shown up on terrorist screening databases.

Separate data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published earlier this month shows that Border Patrol encountered 128,410 individuals who entered the country illegally between Ports of Entry at the southwest border, down 42 percent from December.

Biden Touts New Border Plan

Meanwhile, CBP total encountered a total of 156,274 migrants in January 2023, down nearly 40 percent from December, but still the highest ever for the month of January.

Of those, approximately 69 percent (or 108,573) were single adults and 38,087 were with family units or a group of family members traveling together.

Despite growing concerns over the border crisis, Biden during his State of the Union address earlier this month touted the “record number of personnel working to secure the border” who he said have arrested 8,000 human smugglers and seized over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in the last several months.

Biden also touted his “new border plan” which was launched last month and under which immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela will be returned to Mexico under Title 42 if they illegally enter the country.

However, the administration will also provide legal immigration opportunities via a “humanitarian” parole program to eligible asylum seekers and migrants, allowing them to live and work in the United States, providing they find a sponsor inside the United States and pass a background check

Biden in his State of the Union address also called the border crisis a “bipartisan issue” that he said, “won’t be fixed until Congress acts.”