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In a new report on American political attitudes conducted for Daily Kos by Civiqs, Americans were asked a series of questions related to immigration. As might be expected, the answers to these immigration questions diverged strongly when comparing voters who support Joe Biden and those who support Donald Trump in the upcoming election. Still, there are clear signals of encouragement to those currently negotiating border security legislation.
The results show that a majority of Americans (58%) believe there need to be more restrictions on immigration. That’s to be expected, given the level of attention this issue has received and the constant drumbeat of stories including the word “crisis” or even “invasion.”
However, a very similar majority (57%) made it clear that the solution to this issue is for Democrats and Republicans to compromise on legislation now, rather than waiting until after the election. And a detailed look at this question shows that even Trump voters aren’t completely sold on waiting for Trump.
As you may know, President Biden and Senate Republicans have been negotiating over a bipartisan immigration deal to address border security. Would you prefer that Democrats and Republicans:
Compromise on an immigration deal now 57%
Not make a deal now, and wait until after the 2024 elections 15%
Neither 18%
Unsure 11%
With just 15% of participants answering that lawmakers should wait until after the election, the desire to quickly reach an agreement on this issue and move on to implementing changes at the border seems clear.
Even among Trump voters, equal numbers answered that legislators should compromise now (28%) when compared to waiting until after the election (28%). A further 30% of Trump voters answered “neither.” It’s unclear if these voters don’t want the issue addressed because they would miss the stories about rainbow fentanyl and razor wireor if they expect Trump to be able to enact whatever he wants without compromise should he resume power. But the even split on now versus after the election shows that even Trump voters aren’t ready to pump the brakes on dealing with an issue they’ve been repeatedly told is an emergency.
Those being polled were also asked whether border states or the federal government should have the “ultimate authority” to enforce U.S. border security, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott may or may not be pleased with the results, depending on how you group the answers.
Who do you think should have the ultimate authority to enforce U.S. border security?
Only a quarter of Americans believe states should be the sole arbiters of immigration policy, but 55% believe that states should have some role—even if that’s not what the Constitution states. On the other hand, a clear plurality believes that this should be purely a federal issue.
Like every question on this topic, this one also sees a strong divide between the parties with 73% of Biden voters saying that the federal government should have complete authority and only 10% of Trump voters agreeing. Somehow, it seems very likely that both of these numbers would shift if Trump were in the White House, but right now exactly 50% of Trump voters believe border security should be entirely controlled by border states. Just 3% of Biden voters agree.
Civiqs also prepared crosstables of results reflecting respondents’ viewing habits and, as might be expected, frequent viewers of Fox News have results that closely mirror those of voters who say they intend to vote for Trump. A huge majority (91%) of frequent Fox viewers want more restrictions, which seems like a logical response to Fox’s 24/7 drumbeat of border scare stories. It’s actually surprising that only 29% of frequent Fox viewers want something done about it now after being bombarded with fear tactics for years. But again, Fox numbers and Trump voter numbers are very similar.
Whether Trump voters hold these beliefs because they watch Fox or whether they watch Fox because they hold these beliefs is a chicken-and-the-egg problem. A recent YouGov survey showed that Republicans actively distrust most media outlets and that Fox is the only major broadcaster they believe. So it’s not surprising that crosstabs of frequent Fox viewers, Republicans, and Trump voters all end up giving nearly the same results.
When results on these questions are split along racial lines, calls for more restrictions on immigration are greatest among white voters (66%) and lowest among Black voters (31%). Hispanic voters fall right in the center, with 45% feeling that immigration needs to be tighter and 32% saying there need to be fewer restrictions. Large majorities of both Black voters (79%) and Hispanic voters (69%) feel that now is the right time to strike an agreement on border issues.
But the most interesting results may come from two questions much less commonly asked of voters, but which look to define a core American belief: Is immigration a good thing?
Thinking about the impact of immigration on the U.S. economy, which comes closest to your view:
Immigration is good for the economy 44%
Immigration is bad for the economy 41%
Immigration does not affect the economy 4%
Unsure 11%
Thinking about the impact of immigration on U.S. culture, which comes closest to your view:
Immigration is good for U.S. culture 46%
Immigration is bad for U.S. culture 35%
Immigration does not affect U.S. culture 7%
Unsure 11%
A small plurality of Americans believe that immigration is good for the economy. A slightly bigger plurality believes that immigration is good for the nation’s culture. This raises the question of why so many Americans think that something good for the country needs to happen less. As might be expected, these numbers perform worse with white voters, with only 44% believing that immigration makes American culture better, compared with Black voters (64%) and Hispanic voters (65%).
But maybe the best news is that barely a third of Americans believe that immigration actually harms America’s culture. That third is overwhelmingly Trump voters, where 70% say immigration is a bad thing. This is only another signal of just how important it is to beat Trump and his supporters.
Altogether, it seems like Americans want more control of the border, and want it taken care of now, but they also want to preserve the benefits that immigration brings. Maybe that’s a compromise we can all live with—even if Fox keeps screaming.
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