A new poll conducted in late March by the Associated Press found a solidly growing majority of American adults favor hiring more Border Patrol agents. With the general election shaping up and an unprecedented crisis unfolding for months at the nation’s southern border with Mexico, these survey results could spell trouble for President Joe Biden at the ballot box this November.
Conducted between March 21 and 25 by the Associated Press with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, the survey asked nearly 1,300 adults living in America about their policy preferences to solve the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
64% support hiring more border patrol agents, and 58% support hiring more immigration judges. pic.twitter.com/LBDkZkXf4B
— AP-NORC Center (@APNORC) March 29, 2024
The most overall support among Americans went toward hiring more Border Patrol agents, with 64% of respondents supporting that solution. For comparison, 58% supported hiring more judges to expedite immigration cases in court, 53% supported limiting the number of asylum seekers allowed in America and 42% supported building a border fence.
Breaking down the survey results by party, most Democrats supported hiring more Border Patrol agents, with 54% favoring that solution. Meanwhile, 79% of Republicans, or four out of every five, supported hiring more Border Patrol. However, it is unlikely that each party’s respondents supported the policy measure for the same reasons.
Most Americans in a new survey said they support the Biden administration hiring more Border Patrol agents and immigration judges as migrant surges continue at the U.S.-Mexico border.https://t.co/eWUhTIjVsr pic.twitter.com/PpnDqU8q17
— Vædder 1948 Danmark (@1948Der) March 30, 2024
Adding more U.S. court system infrastructure for illegal immigrants was the lowest on the priority list for Republicans. “Hire more immigration judges” got the support of 65% of Democrats and 60% of Republicans in the survey.
But “Build a wall” received the support of 77% of Republicans, while 75% of Republicans said they support reducing “the number of immigrants allowed to seek asylum.” Democrats on the other hand, supported more immigration judges by 65%, while 35% of Democrats supported reducing the number of immigrants allowed to seek asylum in the United States.
Only 12% of Democrat respondents to the survey supported building a wall. That was the signature policy proposal of former President Donald J. Trump when he ran for the nation’s highest office against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.
