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By Nick Mordowanec
Staff Writer
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Immigration and record levels of southern border crossings have been a thorn in the Biden administration's President Joe Biden's side ahead of the 2024 election, but a new poll shows there might be less interest in the issue about five months out from his rematch with former President Donald Trump.
Biden received some welcome news as part of a new Gallup poll released Monday that showed respondents' don't view immigration as much of a top priority as they did just a month ago. Of survey takers in May, 18 percent said they view immigration at their top issue, a drop of 9 percentage points from the 27 percent in April who said the same. The 18 percent is the smallest number since 16 percent of respondents in December cited immigration was their biggest concern.
The news comes as Biden is reportedly weighing new executive action to curb border crossings as part of what CNN described as a political play, with action potentially going into effect as soon as Tuesday—after Mexico's June 2 election and before Biden's highly anticipated debate with Trump at the end of June.
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Gallup's newest findings represent a drastic shift on the issue compared to previous months. Immigration topped respondents' concerns during a three-month stretch from February to April, marking the first time in 24 years of Gallup polling that immigration was viewed as the most important issue for such a duration.
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In May, the government (21 percent), immigration and the economy in general (17 percent) were marked as most survey takers top issues. Twelve percent cited inflation as their primary concern.
The poll of 1,024 adults in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia was conducted via telephone between May 1-23. The poll has a 95 percent confidence level and margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Gallup attributes the immigration concern decrease to a synchronized decrease in the number of southern border crossings. Migrant encounters fell to 179,000 in April, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) data, including 128,000 who attempted to unlawfully cross between points of entry.
The numbers, while showing a month-to-month decrease, are still higher when compared to previous years—notably those during the Trump administration.
A Gallup spokesperson told Newsweek via email that whether immigration remains top of mind for many potential voters may depend on if crossings continue to increase or decrease.
Newsweek reached out to the Biden campaign via email for comment.
Another poll published last week by the U.S. Immigration Policy Center (USIPC) at the University of California, San Diego, noted Democratic and independent voters' desire for the Biden administration to be more inclusive towards immigrants—including providing pathways to citizenship, which exist but have been scrutinized for being lengthy and not well adjudicated.
Democratic voters, for example, were about 17 percent more likely to support Biden's immigration plan when it is focused on a pathway to citizenship. When Biden remains more neutral or seemingly caves to more right-wing rhetoric on the issue, polling shows that Democrats withdraw support.
Findings regarding independent voters were similar, showing no shift in approval when adopting conservative policies though they on average express an increase of approximately 16 percentage points when pushing for pathways, for example.
Republicans support a shift by the administration to be stronger on border policies. However, the poll showed no statistical significant change either in who they plan to vote for, or in dampening their enthusiasm to vote for Trump.
"In other words, we find a shift to the right might get a thumbs-up from Republicans, but we find no reason to believe this will impact their vote choice," a pollster said.
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