The public's anxiety over illegal immigration is close to a two-decade high, according to a new Gallup poll released Tuesday, but the issue is viewed on partisan lines.
In the poll, 41% said they worry a great deal about illegal immigration, the highest total since 2007. Overall, around 60% of adults said they worry at least a fair amount about illegal immigration. Only 17% of those surveyed said they worry about immigration a little, while 23% said they don't worry at all about the issue.
The poll was conducted before the Biden administration announced they will be dropping Title 42, which allows Border Patrol to deny asylum claims and deport migrants due to COVID-19, The Hill observed. Title 42 has led to the quick deportation of hundreds of thousands of migrants in two years, according to CBS News.
Republicans are more concerned than Democrats by the elimination of Title 42 on May 23. For Republicans, worry over illegal immigration has increased in the past two decades, with 68% of that group concerned about illegal immigration, down from 76% last year but up significantly from 29% in 2001, according to the poll.
Only 18% of Democrats polled by Gallup say they are concerned a great deal about illegal immigration, with 44% saying they don't worry at all. Among independents who responded in the poll, 39% worried a great deal, up from 30% in 2018.
Concern about illegal immigration also varies by region, with 48% of respondents in the South worrying a great deal, followed by 41% of respondents in the East.
The surge of migrants trying to enter the United States at the southern border has been a political flashpoint throughout President Joe Biden's time in office, according to Gallup.
A group of bipartisan senators said they would be getting together to restart immigration reform talks, The Hill reported.
"The only way that we're going to get real progress is have a four-pillar discussion — so immigration reform, DACA, border security and then I think asylum reform is pretty important particularly with that’s going on with Title 42," Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said, who is assembling the group together with the help of Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
The Gallup poll was conducted from March 1-March 18 and surveyed 1,017 adults and it has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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