A Gallup poll published Monday shows that the majority of Americans, 58 percent, are dissatisfied with the levels of immigration into the U.S. today. Just over one-third of Americans, 34 percent, are satisfied with the levels of immigration into the U.S.
The poll findings note that the 58 percent of Americans who are dissatisfied with immigration levels includes 35 percent of all Americans that would prefer immigration be decreased. On the contrary, 9 percent of Americans want to see immigration increased and 14 percent of Americans want to keep immigration levels the same.
“Last year, those dissatisfied were about equally as likely to favor an increase as a decrease, but now the predominant view among the dissatisfied is for less immigration,” the poll write-up stated. “The proportion who want less immigration has nearly doubled from 19% in 2021 and is well above where it was in 2019 (23%) and 2020 (25%). At the same time, calls for more immigration into the country have dropped.”
The poll findings added that President Biden reversed several of former President Trump’s measures limiting immigration into the U.S and that Biden’s attempts at getting “significant” immgration reform from Congress have failed.
“Additionally, Biden has drawn criticism from both sides of the aisle for his border policy, and his approval ratings for handling immigration have been more negative than positive, with declining approval from Democrats,” the write-up stated.
Republicans’ levels of dissatisfaction with immigration levels hit a record-high in Gallup’s latest poll. Independents’ dissatisfaction grew several points over the past year, but not close to the peak in 2007 and 2008, where it stood at 72 percent.
“Record-high dissatisfaction among Republicans is largely driving the overall rise in dissatisfaction with immigration levels in the U.S. Since last year, spanning the change from the Trump to the Biden administration, Republicans' dissatisfaction has grown from 55% to 87%. The current figure is three points above the previous high recorded in 2015, the last time a Democrat occupied the White House.
In the past year, independents' dissatisfaction has risen six points to 55%; however, it remains much lower than the 72% peak for this group in 2007 and 2008.
For their part, Democrats' current 40% dissatisfaction reading has fallen seven points in the past year and 14 points since 2020. Fifty-two percent of Democrats are now satisfied with immigration levels in the U.S., which is only the third time dating back to 2001 that more than half of Democrats have been satisfied. The previous two were 65% in 2017, just before Trump was inaugurated, and 53% in 2014.”
The data was collected from Gallup’s Mood of the Nation poll, which has tracked this immigration measure since 2001. The survey was carried out Jan. 3 through Jan. 16.