President Joe Biden’s campaign took another major hit this week in the form of a damning new survey regarding what a majority of voters think is the No. 1 issue heading into the November election, and interestingly enough, it’s a problem 100 percent of his making.
“A steady 27% of Americans say the most important problem facing the U.S. is immigration, topping Gallup’s open-ended trend for the third consecutive month, the longest stretch for this particular issue in the past 24 years,” polling firm Gallup noted on Tuesday.
The most recent findings stem from a Gallup survey conducted from April 1 to April 22, a period marked by ongoing high levels of migrants seeking entry at the U.S. southern border. In December 2023, immigration and the government were tied as the foremost concerns, coinciding with a record-breaking number of migrant encounters at the southern border.
Following the failure of a bipartisan effort to address the issue in the U.S. Senate in February, immigration surpassed ‘the government’ as the nation’s primary concern and has maintained that position ever since.
Immigration has been a top concern for Americans for several years. According to Gallup, it has been listed as the most important problem four times since 2000, either alone or tied with another issue. This includes several points in 2014, 2018 and 2019. However, 2024 marks the first time that immigration has remained the top issue for consecutive months.
Since Gallup began tracking the “most important problem” question monthly in March 2001, various issues such as the economy, government, the Iraq War, inflation, COVID-19, unemployment, and terrorism have frequently occupied the top spot more often than immigration. With the exception of inflation and unemployment, each of these issues has enjoyed longer consecutive runs as the top concern compared to immigration’s current status.
Still, this is a problem of Biden’s own making. On day one in office, he reversed the bulk of former President Donald Trump’s strict immigration and border enforcement policies, and illegal crossings have set records during several months of his presidency.
Republicans are much more likely than Democrats or independents to consider immigration as the most important issue. In the latest poll, 48% of Republicans mentioned immigration, compared to 8% of Democrats and 25% of independents, Gallup said.
Republicans have mentioned immigration less frequently than they did in February. In that month, a record-high 57% of them named it as the top problem. Fewer Democrats now consider immigration as the top problem than they did in 2019, when as many as 20% of them mentioned it. However, the latest mention of immigration by independents is at a new high. It is worth noting that statistically similar readings were recorded in 2019 and in recent months, said the polling firm.
“The most important problem question is open-ended, allowing respondents to name up to three issues. Variation in the percentage of total mentions each month, generally ranging between 108% and 168% in the trend since 2000, creates additional possible error in how historical percentages (overall and by subgroup) should be interpreted,” Gallup’s report noted.
The firm concluded: “For the third month in a row, immigration is the problem Americans name more than any other as the most important facing the U.S. While immigration has not ranked as the top problem often in Gallup’s monthly trend, it stands alone as the most politically polarizing issue in the past 25 years of Gallup’s measurement.”