Midterms Poll: Immigration Most Important, Taxes Less Important than Climate Change, Race

As the Republican establishment pushes for another round of tax cuts ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, American voters say immigration is the most important issue in the country.

In the latest poll by Harvard/Harris, when voters were asked to rank their top issues for the midterm elections, immigration topped the list with a plurality, 36 percent, calling it the biggest issue facing the nation.

A majority of conservative midterm voters, 51 percent, said immigration was their top issue for the upcoming elections, as well as 46 percent of Republicans.

Immigration is also the most important issue for swing voters — 36 percent say it’s their top priority ahead of the midterm elections.

Meanwhile, the Republican establishment’s preferred issue of tax reform ranks among one of the least important issues for midterm voters.

Only 11 percent of midterm voters said taxes was their most important issue. This makes obscure issues like climate change, race relations, and the national debt all more important issues to voters in the midterm elections than tax reform.

Despite taxes not being a priority — even for Republican and conservative voters — the Republican establishment is already pushing for what they’re calling “tax cuts 2.0.” This comes as the GOP-controlled Congress has yet to fund President Trump’s key campaign promise: A border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Also unfunded is Trump’s plan to add 1,000 new deportation officers to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and an infrastructure plan to revitalize the nation’s poorest communities.

Trump’s “America First” immigration agenda has had widespread support for years now. A previous Harvard/Harris poll found that nearly two in three voters support Trump’s effort to reduce overall immigration to the country — the U.S. currently admits more than 1.5 million foreign nationals every year.

Ending the Catch and Release program, whereby illegal aliens are released into the interior of the country while they await immigration hearings, also has 3:1 support among voters, Breitbart News reported.

Most recently, the majority of white, black, and Hispanic Americans told pollsters they support stricter enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. The Harvard/Harris poll revealed that 77 percent of white voters, 53 percent of black voters, and 51 percent of Hispanic voters said they believe the U.S. needs to crack down on immigration laws.