A new Gallup poll showed most voters view immigration as a good thing despite nearly half saying the national crime rate has worsened as a result.
The survey , released Thursday, found 68% of people believe immigration benefits the country today, while 47% said immigration has made crime worse. The poll questions covered both legal and illegal immigration .
BRAUN INTRODUCES BILL TO REVERSE ‘HARMFUL’ BIDEN MORTGAGE RULE
Overall views on the influx of immigrants have slightly dipped in the past year, when 70% of respondents said immigration was a good thing.
Additionally, the majority of respondents want immigration levels to be either kept the same or increased, compared to 41% who said they wanted to see a decrease in immigration.
As expected, partisan views on the issue remain divided as 73% of Republicans want immigration curtailed, whereas 40% of Democrats want an increase. Independents were more split in their opinions, with 27% supporting an increase and 39% favoring a decrease.
The poll comes after the Biden administration recently suspended Title 42 , emergency restrictions enacted by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic that quickly turned away immigrants at the southern border. Since the provision was lifted in mid-May, the rate of “illegal border crossings has declined sharply,” according to Gallup, which attributed the decline to the increase in asylum hearings and enforcement of potential felony charges under current policies.
Overall, people today are not as supportive of immigration as they were in the recent past but feel largely more positive toward the issue than in the 1990s and early 2000s, Gallup noted in a news release.
“This is seen in national preferences for the level of immigration as well as views of whether immigrants help or hurt the country overall and in several specific areas,” Gallup said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The poll also measured public perceptions of immigration’s effect on the economy, culture, social and moral values, taxes, and the drug epidemic, among other areas.
Gallup conducted the survey from June 1-22 with a random sample of 1,013 U.S. adults and a margin of error of 4 percentage points.