When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, one issue stood out as his signature issue: the border wall. And you remember how Democrats and the media reacted to it. According to them, a border wall was racist and anti-immigrant. Did it matter that many Democrats once supported a border wall? Nope, not at all. Once Trump made a border wall the centerpiece of his campaign—the same border wall that the likes of Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and even Joe Biden voted for back in 2006—it was no longer fashionable to be a Democrat who supported border security, and the media did its part to push the narrative that a border wall was racist and meant to keep non-white people out of the country.
Naturally, once Biden took office, all of Trump's efforts to secure our border were reversed, and illegal immigrants flooded the country in record numbers. Democrat-controlled cities that once virtue-signaled their support for illegal immigrants by establishing themselves as sanctuary cities suddenly had to practice what they preached -- and found out the hard way that supporting illegal immigrants isn't sustainable and that people aren't thrilled with the crime they've brought with them.
And public attitudes have shifted greatly as a result. Last month, a plurality of voters named immigration as their top concern, and voters overwhelmingly expressed trust in Trump over Biden to handle the immigration issue and the border crisis. Even minorities are calling the border situation an "invasion." In fact, they do so more than white voters.
And now, thanks to Biden's border crisis, for the first time a majority of Americans support building a border wall.
According to a Monmouth University poll released Monday, 53% of Americans favor a border wall, compared to 46% who say they are opposed. This is a major swing compared to when the same pollster asked the question in September 2017, mere months into Trump's first term, when just 35% supported the border wall and 60% opposed it.
Related: Biden's Planned Border Visit Won't Save Him
"Compared to public opinion nine years ago, support for building a border wall has increased by 13 points among Republicans (from 73% to 86%) and 11 points among independents (from 47% to 58%), but it has declined by 14 points among Democrats (from 31% to 17%)," explains Monmouth.
“Illegal immigration has taken center stage as a defining issue this presidential election year,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement. “Other Monmouth polling found this to be Biden’s weakest policy area, including among his fellow Democrats.”
Most (61%) Americans say immigrants seeking political asylum at the border should be made to stay in Mexico while their claims are processed. Just 35% say they should be allowed into the U.S. while they wait. Five years ago, slightly more supported allowing asylum-seekers to wait in the U.S. (41%) while the number who wanted them to stay in Mexico (51%) was somewhat lower than it is now. Support for keeping asylum-seekers on the other side of the border as their claims are processed has increased among all partisan groups compared with 2019.
The poll also found that a plurality of Americans (47%) thought the bipartisan border deal, which failed to get anywhere, wasn't tough enough, while only 28% thought it was about right and just 12% thought it was too tough. Breakdown by political affiliation found that 77% of Republicans and 48% of independents considered the bill not stringent enough, whereas 51% of Democrats viewed it as appropriately tough.
“These results illustrate why the border deal was dead on arrival," Murray concluded. "The vast majority of rank and file Republicans and many independents believe it is too soft on illegal immigration, even if they don’t know exactly what’s in the legislation. Senate GOP leadership could have tried to sell the bill, but that would have almost certainly been fruitless once Donald Trump weighed in against it."
The poll results show just how badly Joe Biden miscalculated the impact his open border policies would have on the country. Public opinion has shifted so significantly that it is literally hurting him more than any other issue.
