President Biden is struggling to sell his immigration agenda to the public, a new poll shows.
While Biden earns high marks for his coronavirus response, his immigration policies are underwater, according to a new CNN-SSRS poll conducted between March 3-8.
Immigration is one of only two issues in the 1,009-person survey where fewer respondents approved of Biden’s actions than disapproved, 43% to 49%. Eight percent said they had no opinion.
Disapproval was higher among men than women, 53% to 45%, and trended along partisan lines.
Fifty-three percent of independents rebuked Biden’s immigration policies, along with 42% of moderates. While Republicans, at 91%, and Democrats, at 13%, sharply diverged.
Biden’s foreign policy also came under fire, registering 44% approval to 46% disapproval. He fared best on his coronavirus response, with 60% approval to 34% disapproval. (The margin of error was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.)
BIDEN TRIES TO AVOID ‘KIDS IN CAGES’ TAG AMID INCREASED CHILD MIGRANT FLOW AT SOUTHERN BORDER
Biden promised a swift overhaul of former President Donald Trump’s immigration system upon taking office, introducing a sweeping immigration bill on his first day, followed by executive actions.
But several promised reforms have not yet happened, and the new administration is struggling to respond to the number of asylum-seekers apprehended at the southern border, which has increased since Biden took office.
Under the Trump administration’s Title 42 rule, adults are sent back immediately, but children and some families are taken into custody. In response, the White House has moved to expand capacity at child-holding facilities, the use of which was pilloried during prior administrations.
Biden officials have declined to call the issue a crisis, despite concerns from Democratic lawmakers over increased numbers, coronavirus, and the process for housing children.
“We are weeks, maybe even days, away from a crisis on the southern border. Inaction is simply not an option,” said Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, whose district borders Mexico to the south. “Our country is currently unprepared to handle a surge in migrants in the middle of the pandemic. Migrants are illegally crossing, potentially exposing border communities to the coronavirus and putting us at risk.”
Other Democrats have balked at the use of detention facilities that they earlier decried.
This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay – no matter the administration or party. https://t.co/AEV7s7QQnB
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 23, 2021
For Biden, threading the needle between his constituencies is proving challenging, with the White House seeking to rebrand holding facilities as “reception centers” while arguing that taking in child asylum-seekers is the only humane response.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
And the issue has become a political cudgel for Trump, barely six weeks removed from the White House. Trump railed against Biden’s immigration policies in a statement this week and in remarks last month during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.
