Americans Disapprove Of Biden’s Handling Of Child Migrant Crisis – Poll
Most Americans disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of the migrants crisis involving unaccompanied minors at the US-Mexico border.
A new poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that in general, Americans surveyed disapprove more than approve of the Democratic president’s means of dealing with the influx of migrants. Approval of his efforts on larger immigration policy also falls short of other top issues, according to the poll — suggesting that it could be one of the weak points of the new administration.
Trending: Vote On The Controversial Poll That Asks Americans ‘Which Media Outlet Is The Most Biased?’
“Overall, 40% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of children reaching the nation’s southern border without their parents, compared with just 24% who approve. Thirty-five percent don’t have an opinion either way,” The AP said in its survey released Monday.
Among Democrats, less than half of those surveyed said they approve of Biden’s efforts on the issue or 44%, while 40% said they “neither approve or disapprove” and 15% said they disapprove.
Only 8% of Republicans approve of the Democratic president’s handling of the situation involving unaccompanied children apprehended in the US-Mexico border, while 26% had no opinion. A bigger 66% of GOP supporters said they disapprove of Biden on his dealing with the issue.
More Americans disapprove than approve of how President Joe Biden is handling waves of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, and approval of his efforts on larger immigration policy falls short of other top issues. https://t.co/fjCPoEnsmi
— News 6 WKMG (@news6wkmg) April 5, 2021
Last Friday CBS News reported that almost “19,000 unaccompanied children entered US custody along the southern border in March, an all-time monthly high that has forced the Biden administration to house migrant teenagers in convention centers, camps for oil workers and a military base.”
Less than 50% approve of Biden’s handling immigration
“Just 42% of Americans say they approve of how the president is handling immigration in general, and a similar share, 44%, say they approve of how he’s handling border security,” the Associated Press said.
The same poll also found that solving the problem of increasing child migrants at the border is among the top priorities for most Americans.
It revealed that 59% of Americans say that “providing safe treatment of children at the border” should be a high priority for the federal government, with 31% saying that it is a moderate priority and 9% saying that it should be a low priority.
The survey also showed that 65% of Americans think that “reuniting parents and children who were separated at the border” is something that should be given a high priority by the federal government in dealing with immigration issues.
The Associated Press noted that 53% of Americans said that more security at the border should be a high priority for the federal government, with 32% saying that it should be a moderate priority.
Meanwhile, 47% of Americans said that making policies stronger to prevent immigrants from overstaying their visas should be a high priority, with 35% saying that it is a moderate priority.
“When asked if legal immigration should be increased, remain the same, or reduced, respondents have differed over the past few years,” the survey said, noting that in August 2018, 29% of respondents said that legal immigration should increase — with the figure rising to 35% in September 2019.
Last March, however, the figure dropped and only 28% of Americans said that legal immigration should be increased.
Biden’s overall approval rating at 61%
The survey showed that Biden’s approval rating as president sits at 61% — although AP noted that this “fall short” of his rating on some other issues, including his response to the coronavirus pandemic and managing the economy.
As the Biden administration pushes for “the most ambitious” overhaul of the nation’s immigration system — which includes providing an eight-year path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal aliens in the US, The Associated Press poll showed that doing so isn’t high on the public’s priority list.
Only 29% of Americans overall, including 42% of Democrats and 14% of Republicans, called legal status for people in the country illegally a high priority.
Additionally, the poll said only a third of Americans say that allowing refugees to come to the US or expanding “guest worker” programs should be included in the administration’s high priorities.
The gap between Biden’s overall approval rating and his handling of immigration crosses party lines with 74% of Democrats and 10% of Republicans approve of Biden’s handling of immigration, compared with 96% of Democrats and 22% of Republicans who approve overall.
“The poll shows many Americans rank some of the major goals of the Democratic proposal as moderate priorities instead of high ones, suggesting Biden lacks a clear mandate for how best to proceed on the issue, potentially hurting his leverage with Congress,” The Associated Press added.
The AP-NORC poll was conducted on March 26-29 among 1,166 American adults with a margin of sampling error for all respondents at plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
NEW: The surge of migrants arriving at the border has produced something unseen in the early days of Biden’s presidency: a negative approval rating.
His overall approval is strong (58%), but half (49%) now DISAPPROVE of his immigration handling.https://t.co/Id7LswuWhB pic.twitter.com/8cdcPB3Te6
— Eli Yokley (@eyokley) March 31, 2021
Last week, multiple polls revealed an increasing disapproval rating of Biden’s handling of the border crisis with an NPR/Marist showing that 53% disapprove of his efforts to deal with the issue despite the efforts of his administration to repeatedly downplay the problem.
“Former President Donald Trump built his presidency around hard-line policies that expanded and fortified border walls, made it tougher for people fleeing drug violence and other desperate circumstances in Mexico and Central America to seek U.S. asylum and separated immigrant families,” The Associated Press said.
“Biden has tried to seize political momentum on the issue by promising a more humane and orderly system, but his administration has struggled to cope with rising numbers of migrants coming to the border, especially unaccompanied children,” it added.
