The poll, released on Oct. 17, shows that 52 percent of American voters support the U.S.-Mexico border wall, marking the first time over half of the voters supported the construction of a border wall with Mexico since the question was first raised in Nov. 2016 by the Quinnipiac University Poll. Forty-four percent of voters are against the border wall.
The poll results were divided along political party lines. About nine out of ten Republicans (91 percent) support the construction of the border wall, while nearly eight out of ten Democrats (78 percent) oppose it. Independents are split, with 51 percent in favor of building a border wall and 46 percent against it.
“Build the Wall, the rallying cry that was vilified and shot down during the Trump administration, makes a comeback, buoyed by Republican voters and no doubt resuscitated by an unresolved border crisis,” Tim Malloy, Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst, said in a statement accompanying the result.
The poll also found that 55 percent of voters view the influx of migrants seeking sanctuary in the United States as a crisis, while 31 percent consider it a problem but not a crisis, and 11 percent don’t see it as a problem at all.
Furthermore, thirty-one percent of voters are open to welcoming migrants seeking sanctuary in their community. Another 37 percent would like to welcome such migrants but believe their community cannot accommodate them. Meanwhile, 27 percent are opposed to welcoming migrants into their community.
The poll was conducted among 1,552 self-identified registered voters from Oct. 12 to 16 with a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.
Border Wall Construction Resumed
The findings come at the time the Biden administration has decided to resume the construction of the border wall that it was once strongly critical of the Trump administration as the country has been facing an influx of illegal immigrants along the U.S-Mexico border.The new barriers will be built within the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, an area designated as a “high illegal entry” zone. The construction will occur in the vicinity of the Falcon Dam, the Arroyo Morteros Tract, the Las Ruinas Tract, the Arroyo Ramirez Tract, intersections of major roads such as Perez Road and U.S. Highway 83, and various tracts within the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
DHS intends to fund the construction project using appropriations allocated by Congress during the Trump administration in 2019 to build the border wall in the Rio Grande Valley.
The decision for the border wall resumption prompted backlash from both Republicans and Democrats, which is seen as a sign of policy reversal from the administration.
According to the Fox News poll, Biden gets the lowest ratings on border security to date, with only 30 percent approval and 66 percent disapproval. The disapproval is significantly high among most Republicans (93 percent) and quite substantial among independents (75 percent), while a majority of Democrats (56 percent) approve.
