66 percent in new survey support increased border security

About two-thirds of U.S. adults support Congress taking action to increase border security as the Biden administration tries to keep control of the situation at the southern border, according to a new poll. 

The poll from The Economist and YouGov found that 66 percent of adults support increased border security, with a plurality, 45 percent, saying they strongly support it. At least a plurality of most demographic breakdowns of the respondents said they somewhat or strongly support more security, but certain groups were considerably more in favor of it than others. 

The poll found increased security is most popular among older adults, with more than 80 percent of those 65 and older saying they strongly or somewhat support it. Three-quarters of adults ages 45 to 64 said they support it, but 55 percent of those 30 to 44 and 47 percent of those 18 to 29 said the same. 

More than 70 percent of white respondents said they support stepping up security, but only 50 percent of Black respondents and 49 percent of Hispanic respondents said they do. One in 4 Black respondents and more than 1 in 5 Hispanic respondents said they were not sure. 

Pollsters also found key differences in views along party and ideological lines, with 96 percent of respondents who voted for former President Trump in the 2020 presidential election saying they support Congress taking action and 49 percent of those who voted for President Biden saying so. 

Nine in 10 Republicans said they supported more security, and just more than half of Democrats and independents said they did. More than 20 percent of independents said they were unsure. 

The poll comes as Biden has taken steps this month to scale up his administration’s response to the thousands of illegal border crossings that have taken place throughout the past months. 

U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement announced last week that it had more than 250,000 encounters with individuals on the southern border last month, the most in a month of Biden’s presidency. 

Biden visited the southern border earlier this month for the first time in his presidency and has announced a series of measures to try to limit the number of illegal crossings taking place. 

Some of the measures include preventing people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti, where many of those crossing have come from, from applying for asylum if they crossed the border without being allowed and proposing a rule to prohibit migrants from applying for asylum in the United States if they did not first seek protection in a country they traveled through to get to the U.S.

He has also launched a website to give potential migrants simplified access to the legal pathways they have to try to enter the U.S., Canada and Mexico. 

The poll was conducted from Jan. 21 to 24 among 1,500 U.S. adults. The margin of error was 3.2 points.