According to a Bloomberg/Morning Consult survey, President Joe Biden is looking less strong on immigration, the problem that former President Donald Trump has highlighted, while Congress is still negotiating a border security compromise.
Six out of seven states considered to be potential battlegrounds saw a rise in the proportion of voters who ranked immigration as the most critical issue in the 2024 elections.
Some 61% of voters in those areas hold Biden largely or entirely responsible for the surge of migrants that is threatening to flood the U.S.-Mexico border.
Republicans in Congress were held responsible by 38% of those states’ voters, while the Trump administration was held accountable by 30%.
The gap of trust between Trump and Biden on immigration has increased by 5 percentage points since December, with 52% of the battleground states expressing their support for Trump compared to 30% for Biden.
This poll’s results are consistent with others that have shown Biden to be behind Trump in swing states; in a head-to-head battle, Trump leads Biden 48% to 42%.
Respondents were most concerned about the economy; 51% have greater faith in Trump to manage it than in Biden (33%).
Voters in the battleground states ranked immigration as the second most important issue; 52% trusted Trump more than Biden (30%).
Voters may have had a negative outlook on the economy as a whole, but when questioned about their local economies, they were far more upbeat.
Among those who took the survey, only 29% said the national economy was improving, 45% thought their state was doing well, and 52% thought their local economy was doing well.
Between January 16th and the 22nd, 4,956 registered voters were polled. Plus or minus one percentage point is the margin of error.
Many Americans, especially Republicans, blame the Biden administration’s rule changes and inadequate border security for the spike in illegal migrant crossing. A CBS News survey also indicated President Biden’s support for managing the border between the United States and Mexico has decreased.
An NBC News survey confirmed these opinions, showing that 75% of those surveyed want more money to be spent on border security.
