OPINION: Border Security Wildy Popular

Majority of Americans support deportation, curbing asylum seeking at border

Americans have had enough with the open-borders agenda, and polls show a vast spike in the share of Americans supporting the deportation of illegals and a reduction in asylum processing along the border. In other words, Americans now favor significantly stricter immigration policy than just a few years ago — including a majority of independents, Hispanics, and college-educated Americans. The latest YouGov survey shows Americans would favor a deportation program to deport all illegal immigrants by a broad 24-point margin, or 62 percent to 38 percent. This represents a vast spike in the share of Americans favoring a deportation effort compared to just two months ago. An NPR / Marist poll from April found that Americans supported the deportation of all illegals by just three percentage points, 51 percent to 48 percent. Now, Americans support deportation by 24 points. Fox News analysis in February found that nearly 7.3 million illegals have crossed the U.S.-Mexican border under President Joe Biden, a number larger than the population of most U.S. states. Americans are aware of the strain the migrant crisis is putting on the country and are increasingly supportive of deportation efforts to reduce illegal immigration. While a majority of Democrats (62 percent) oppose deporting all illegals, according to the survey, a full 38 percent support deportation. Independents support deportation of all illegals by a 20-point margin, 60 percent to 40 percent, and Republicans favor deportation by a 76-point margin, 88 percent to 12 percent. Even college-educated Americans — who tend to lean left and favor Biden — support the deportation of all illegal aliens by a 16-point margin, 58 percent to 42 percent. Hispanics — another group to whom deportation could be construed as controversial — also support deportation of illegals by a six-point margin, 53 percent to 47 percent. Similarly, a full 70 percent of Americans say they support a recent executive order partially shutting down asylum processing along the U.S.-Mexico border, which will allow U.S. immigration officials to quickly deport migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally. A full 76 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of independents approve of the order. In addition, 69 percent of Hispanics and 67 percent of college-educated voters support the effort to minimize migrant crossings. These views are in-line with YouGov / CBS News polling from January which found dwindling support for allowing illegals to remain in the U.S., with most Americans (57 percent) saying asylum seekers should either remain in Mexico and wait for a hearing or be deported permanently. Voters in the January poll also held a distinctly negative view of immigration’s long-term impact on the country, with the public saying, 48 percent to 22 percent, that the influx of migrants will make society worse in the long term. Those views appear to have intensified over the past five months, with stronger favorability for deportation in the latest YouGov survey. With a reckless and unsustainable open-borders agenda that threatens civil society and national security, the political elites have pushed Americans to the brink. Even left-leaning groups, including many Democrats and college-educated voters, are expressing deep dissatisfaction with President Biden’s border crisis and a desire to deport illegal immigrants.        

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Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at the Americans for Limited Government Foundation, the research arm of Americans for Limited Government, a libertarian political advocacy group. The organization conducts policy research and publishes reports with the goal of reducing the size of the government.