POLITICO/Morning Consult conducted a poll January 4-6, 2018, taken before Tuesday’s nationally televised addresses by President Trump, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The poll asked a number of questions on several political topics, including immigration.
The poll sample was registered voters, 77% of who said immigration should be either a top priority (33%) or an important priority (34%) for Congress. Only 15% said immigration should not be an important priority for Congress, and 8% said Congress should do nothing on immigration.
Questions were also asked about support for a border wall. Asked how important it was to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, 42% said it was either a top priority (24%) or an important priority (18%). In addition, 11% said building a border wall was not too important a priority. 32% said constructing a border wall on the U.S./Mexico border should not be done. When responses are divided between those that prioritize the building of a border wall and those that do not, the split is 53% to 32%
In a straightforward question about support or opposition to building a border wall, opinion was almost evenly divided. Support was 44% (30% strongly, 14% somewhat) and opposition 47% (10 somewhat, 37% strongly). However, the question asked about “the construction of a border wall along the United States-Mexico border. Some of the respondents may have taken the question to mean along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, which has not been proposed by President Trump or any member of Congress.
When asked to pick among several statements about illegal immigration, 42% of respondents said illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border is a “crisis.” 37% said the United States is “facing a problem” with illegal immigration but would not categorize it as a crisis. Only 12% said the United States wAs not facing a problem with illegal immigration. Taken together, 79% of registered voters polled believe illegal immigration ACRPSS the southern border was a problem, with over half of those seeing it rising to the level of a crisis.
The Politico story on the poll can be found here.
Toplines here, and crosstabs here.
