More than a thousand miles north of the southern border, Republican voters who turned out at the polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina have one policy front of mind: immigration.
The border crisis surged past all other voter concerns, including foreign policy, the economy, and abortion, to become the greatest concern, according to primary and caucus exit polling.
This growing sentiment among early state voters is no fluke. New polling from Monmouth University’s Polling Institute found that 8 in 10 voters from all parties see illegal immigration as either a very serious or somewhat serious problem.
Iowa GOP voters surveyed on their way into polling facilities on Jan. 15 identified immigration as the most pressing concern, beating out all others. Nearly two-thirds selected immigration as the top motivator to vote, according to an ABC News entrance poll.
Republican voters in New Hampshire followed suit on Jan. 23, according to CNN exit polling.
Similarly, polling conducted by Edison Research outside South Carolina polling centers last week found immigration also topped the list of concerns for voters.
Concerns among Republican voters in each of the three states match up with how voters feel across the country.
Those concerns come as President Joe Biden and likely 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will each visit the southern border on Thursday. But both visits will have different objectives.
Biden is scheduled to stop in Brownsville, Texas, a border city near the Gulf Coast that is at the state’s southern tip. Biden will meet with Border Patrol agents, local leaders, and other law enforcement, according to a White House official.
“He will discuss the urgent need to pass the Senate bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border in decades,” the official said in a statement. “He will reiterate his calls for Congressional Republicans to stop playing politics and to provide the funding needed for additional U.S. Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, fentanyl detection technology and more.”
Trump is expected to fly into nearby Del Rio, then travel roughly 45 minutes by motorcade to Eagle Pass. While in town, he will tour Shelby Park, which sits on the border and has been enclosed by Texas state troopers and National Guard soldiers to keep out federal Border Patrol agents.
Trump will spend several hours on the ground, touring what has been the epicenter of the border crisis since Biden took office, according to two local law enforcement officials who spoke with the Washington Examiner Tuesday. Eagle Pass saw as many as 2,000 arrests of illegal immigrants per day at the height of it but has seen a significant decline in illegal crossings in recent weeks.
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Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has installed concertina wire along the river’s edge and stationed military at the riverbank day and night to keep people who cross from getting away.
The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
