Christian Smith
Close to half of voters in a new poll see former President Trump as the candidate best suited to address issues related to the U.S. southern border, a key issue ahead of November’s general election.
A new Decision Desk HQ/News Nation poll finds that 46 percent of voters think Trump is the best choice to handle the border. About a quarter, or 26 percent, think President Biden is the candidate to trust, and another 13 percent are unsure.
Divided by party, support is greater for the Republican candidate on the issue of immigration – with 85% of Republican voters choosing Trump and 61% of Democratic voters choosing Biden.
Immigration is a key issue in the run-up to 2024, as Biden and Trump campaign for another four years in the White House. It’s just topped Gallup’s list of the most important issues for Americans for the third consecutive month, surpassing government, inflation and the economy in general. Notably, however, immigration lagged behind inflation in the DDHQ survey.
Republicans have seized on issues at the border as they seek to expand their majority in the House and flip the Senate in November, criticizing the Biden administration for its management.
Trump leaned into incendiary rhetoric on immigration throughout the campaign, warning about “migrant crime” and suggesting that immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the country.
Meanwhile, the Biden campaign warned that “we cannot go back” to the way the Trump administration handled the issue.
“Here’s what I won’t do: I won’t demonize immigrants, saying they ‘poison the blood of our country,’ as he said in his own words,” Biden said at this year’s State of the Union, taking a jab at Trump. .
Six in 10 voters in the new DDHQ poll say immigration has had a negative impact on the country. Notably, however, only 47 percent say the issue has had a negative impact on their own community.
Sixty-three percent of all voters say they are very or somewhat concerned about immigrants voting illegally, with nearly nine in 10 Republicans expressing that concern.
Research shows that voting by noncitizens is extremely rare, despite recent unmasked rumors suggesting that migrants are registering to vote in swing states.
Recent analysis of the Bipartisan Policy Center found that “any instances of illegal voting by noncitizens have been investigated by the appropriate authorities and there is no evidence that these votes — or any other instances of voter fraud — were significant enough to impact the outcome of any election .”
The Decision Desk headquarters, under the direction of NewsNation, interviewed 1,000 registered voters between April 16 and 17. Margins of error vary between questions due to item nonresponse and base rate, but a comparable probability survey would have margins of error reported as plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Rafael Bernal contributed.
