The number of Hispanic Americans who endorse building a border wall and deporting illegal migrants has jumped at least 10% — while the vast majority support the president even shutting down the besieged southern border, according to a new poll.
Four in ten Hispanic Americans (42%) want a wall along the US-Mexico border, an Axios and Ipsos poll released this week found — a 12 percentage point jump from December 2021. Thirty-eight percent also supported sending migrants back to their home countries, up 10 percentage points from three years prior.
A whopping 64% of Hispanic Americans surveyed also said they would support giving the president the authority to shut the border if too many migrants start coming into the country.
The poll surveyed more than 1,000 voting-age Hispanic Americans between March 22 and March 28.
The survey also determined that immigration is now the third-biggest concern among Latino voters.
Still, more than half of the respondents said they worry that if the federal government starts mass deportations, it would target all Latinos living in the United States, including legal residents.
The fear was greatest among first-generation Americans and those who speak only Spanish.
As such, a majority would still prefer that the US provide migrants with a path to citizenship, and nearly 60% said they would support allowing refugees fleeing crime and violence in Latin America to claim asylum in the US.
More than 7 million migrants have illegally crossed the US-Mexico border since President Biden took office in 2021, US Customs and Border Protection data shows.
The total does not include an estimated additional 1.8 million known “gotaways” who evaded law enforcement.
In February, the nation’s besieged southern border set another new record with 189,922 migrant encounters in that month alone, CPB data shows, as officials brace for an expected spring surge.
The unsustainable border rush has made immigration a lightning rod issue for the 2024 presidential election.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump hammered President Biden on illegal immigration during a campaign stop in Michigan earlier this month, accusing his rival of causing a “bloodbath” both across the country.
A bipartisan group of New York county leaders then called on the commander-in-chief Tuesday to immediately address the “war zone” at the southern border.
Biden, meanwhile, has hinted that he would sign an executive order to turn away migrants seeking to enter the country via the southern border.
But in an interview with Univision on Tuesday, he said he was unsure whether he actually has that power.
