Americans see border crisis as ‘invasion’ – poll

Nearly two-thirds of US voters see the record influx of illegal aliens streaming across the nation’s southern border as not just a crisis, but an “invasion,” a new Rasmussen Reports poll has found.

The survey, released on Monday, showed that 65% of voters believe their country is being invaded. A majority of respondents in every demographic category – including 73% of Hispanics, 74% of blacks, 63% of women, 55% of Democrats, 80% of Republicans, and 70% of voters under age 40 – agreed with the statement that it’s “very accurate” or “somewhat accurate” to call the flood of illegal migrant crossings an invasion. Just 15% of US adults believe that it’s “not at all accurate.”

Even more voters, 72%, believe the situation at the border is a “crisis.” Similarly, 70% of Americans, including 63% of Democrats, see border security as a vital national security interest, the poll showed.

The survey results come at a time when the border crisis is weighing on President Joe Biden’s approval rating as he campaigns for reelection later this year. A Monmouth University poll released last month showed that just 26% of US adults approve of Biden’s immigration policies, while his overall approval rating dropped to a record low of 34%.

“Let’s be clear: What’s happening at the border is an invasion – at the invitation of Joe Biden,” said US Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican. US Representative Mary Miller, an Illinois lawmaker who was part of a congressional delegation that toured key ports of entry last week, called for lawmakers to cut off funding to the government until the Biden administration secures the border.

Border Patrol officers encountered over 300,000 illegal immigrants crossing into the US in December, an all-time high. Illegal crossings have surged since Biden took office in January 2021 and began dismantling the immigration policies of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump.

Biden’s administration is on pace to have more than 12 million illegal migrant encounters during his four-year term, according to an estimate by Datahazard, compared with 4.76 million during the Trump years. Border Patrol officers intercepted 172 foreign nationals who appeared on the FBI’s terrorism watch list in the past fiscal year, compared with 14 combined during Trump’s four years in office.

Trump, who is polling as the leading Republican presidential candidate for November’s election, has vowed to launch the largest deportation operation in American history if voters send him back to the White House.

Senator Marsha Blackburn and other Republican lawmakers have pointed out that while the Biden administration pleads unsuccessfully to get more help from Mexico in slowing the migrant influx, the president has sued the state of Texas for trying to help secure its part of the border. The administration has fought the state in court to remove border barriers and sued Texas last week over a new law enabling local police to arrest migrants for entering the country illegally.