The chaos on the southern border caused by President Joe Biden’s “catch and release” border policies has made immigration Biden’s weakest issue for months now.
According to USA Today, 67% of voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration, while Fox News and Politico both put Biden’s immigration disapproval numbers at 59%.
The “open borders” wing of the Democratic Party will often defend these numbers by noting that many Democrats may disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration because they think Biden is being too tough on migrants. Far-left groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, for example, are even fighting Biden in federal court in an effort to allow even more illegal immigrants into the country faster.
Few pollsters ask a follow-up question to find out why so many voters say they are unhappy with Biden’s handling of immigration, but CBS News recently did just that. And it turns out a majority of voters say Biden is not tough enough on immigration, including a majority of Hispanics.
Specifically, CBS News asked, “Right now, is the way Joe Biden and the Democrats are handling immigration, too tough, not tough enough, or just right?”
Fifty-seven percent of voters said Biden was “not tough enough,” compared to 15% who said he was “too tough” and 28% who said his policies were “just right.”
Digging into the numbers further, even among Democrats, voters were more likely to say Biden was “not tough enough” (26%) than “too tough” (20%). Although a majority of Democrats said Biden’s border policies were “just right.”
Predictably, Republicans overwhelmingly (92%) said Biden was weak on immigration, while a solid 61% of independents agreed.
Turning to race, the vast majority of whites (63%) and Hispanics (53%) said Biden was weak on immigration, while a plurality of black voters (45%) said Biden’s border policies were “just right.”
If Democrats are wondering why more and more voters who identify as Hispanic or Latino are leaving their party, they may want to consider that open borders aren’t nearly as popular with these communities as they thought.
