Six out of 10 Democrats and independents support President Joe Biden’s claimed policy of curbing illegal migration at the border.
Biden’s claimed policy is mostly a media-backed P.R. ruse to cement his policy of aiding Wall Street by doubling migration above the limits set by Congress in 1990.
But the Democrats’ support for the claimed curbs shows how many Democrats are eager to see their leadership push a policy of curbing migration. The Democrats’ support shows how Republicans can win more swing voters by pushing a lower-immigration policy.
The poll of 1,137 adults was conducted on May 9-10 by CivicScience, a business that says it “was formed to revolutionize opinion research in the digital age.”
Many Democratic voters have deep partisan loyalties and will follow their political party’s leadership. But many of those Democratic voters also want the civic benefits and economic gains that would flow from a low-migration policy, such as better workplace conditions.
Only 18 percent of Democrats oppose Biden’s claimed curbs.
This 3:1 split among Democrats is spurring protests by Democratic voters in New York, Chicago, and other places.
Christopher Leon Johnson via Storyful
Democrats know their migration policies are a problem within their own coalition. The Hill, for example, reported:
“I just don’t think this issue lends itself to creating a lot of advantages,” said Democratic strategist Joel Payne. “Even if it is handled right, you are still going to piss off a lot of people.”
“There is no winning on this, where everyone has a different perspective on it.”
The Democrats’ conflicting priorities would allow GOP leaders to win more Democratic voters if they package anti-migration proposals in friendly language and excuses for cutting migration. Those excuses could include concerns about the pocketbook impact on Americans, the impact of migration on the environment, or the increasing use of child migrants in U.S. jobs.
However, so far, neither party wants to woo swing voters on the immigration dispute. Instead, the GOP and the Democratic parties hide the pocketbook damage and just use immigration as an emotional whip to spur turnout by their bases.
The ignore-the-swing-voters strategy also helps the two parties appeal to the donors who strongly want the government to import even more cheap workers, apartment-sharing renters, and welfare-aided consumers.
One GOP contender for 2024 is trying to woo swing voters with promises of lower migration. Gov. Ron Desantis said on May 10:
We determine as Americans what type of immigration system benefits our country, but when you’re doing immigration, it’s not for their benefit as foreigners, it’s for your benefit as Americans.
So if there’s legal immigration that’s harming Americans, we shouldn’t do that either. For example, some of these H-1B visas, they would fire American tech workers and hire foreigners at lower wages. I don’t agree with that. I think that’s wrong.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Rebecca S. Gratz for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The complicated and deceptive politics of immigration is little recognized by the nation’s media.
For example, the CivicScience poll suggests the company’s analysts do not under the politics, economics, and civics of mass migration. So the company’s headline says: “Nearly 3 in 4 Republicans Support Biden’s Immigration Measures,” even though a vast majority of GOP voters deeply oppose Biden’s high-immigration/low-wage economic policy, and deeply distrust his claimed support for secure borders.
Many polls show that American voters want curbs on legal and illegal migration.
An Ipsos May 5-7 poll of 1,022 adults asked, “Do you support or oppose … Raising the number of immigrants allowed into the U.S. each year?”
Fifty-four percent oppose, and 44 percent support, more migrants.
Just 16 percent of all adults, and 15 percent of independents, strongly support more migrants — while 31 percent of all adults and 30 percent of independents strongly oppose the inflow.
The poll also showed that Biden has only 4 percent “strongly” support for his policies — and faces 38 percent “strongly” disapproval.
A May 6-9 YouGov poll of 1,500 adults showed that a 35 percent plurality of Americans say immigration has made the nation “worse off.” Just 31 percent say the nation is “better off” because of migration.
Among independents, 33 percent picked “worse off,” and just 27 percent picked “better off.” Twenty percent of blacks, and 17 percent of Hispanics, endorse the “worse off” answer.
The YouGov poll also showed that 51 percent of respondents would favor a law “allowing U.S. border agents to deport migrants without court hearings when there is no public health justification.” The proposal was opposed by 52 percent of liberals and was endorsed by 46 percent of independents.
Other polls show that Americans strongly oppose labor migration. For example, an April 30 to May 4 poll by Rasmussen Reports of 1,250 voters showed that 61 percent of adults — including 64 percent of blacks and 71 percent of Latinos — believe it is “better for businesses to raise the pay and try harder to recruit non-working Americans even if it causes prices to rise.”
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