Politico Poll: More Americans Want Less Migration

A growing share of Americans wants immigration levels to be reduced, according to a new poll from Politico and Harvard University’s medical school.

Forty-one percent of Americans want migration reduced, said the May 6-9 poll of 1,,025 adults.

That’s a big jump since June 2021, when 31 percent of respondents told Gallup they wanted less migration.

The Politico/Harvard poll also reported that just 24 percent want it to be increased, sharply down from 33 percent in the June 2021 Gallup poll.

The combined result is a 19-point shift in public opinion over 11 months in favor of less migration.

The poll matches many other polls. For example, in November 2021, a YouGov poll showed a seven-month, 19-point shift towards the opinion that immigration makes the United States “worse off.”

The trend was buried by the Politico/Harvard report under the admission that 55 percent of Americans want to preserve the Title 42 barrier against migrants. That barrier was ordered preserved by a judge on May 20.

“The [Title 42] findings suggest that people’s views about ending the use of Title 42 are driven by their views about the desirability of future immigration to the U.S. from other countries,” said the joint polling report by Politico and Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

In both polls, 35 percent said they accepted the current level of immigration. This shifting bloc of swing voters likely includes many people who formerly favored more migration, as well as people who do not follow politics and likely know little about the number of migrants moving into Americans’ jobs, housing, and communities.

Under current laws, roughly 1 million legal immigrants are invited into the country each year. This inflow is boosted by the arrival of roughly 500,000 temporary white-collar workers, roughly 500,000 blue-collar contractor workers, and the huge inflow of roughly 1 million migrants across President Joe Biden’s southern border. Overall, Biden’s deputies invited at least 2.5 million foreign workers into the United States in 2021, just as perhaps 4 million young Americans began looking for well-paying careers.

The two polls also showed the parties are becoming more distant from each other.

For example, the Politico/Harvard poll showed the GOP split on migration as 67 percent less migration, and 24 percent more migration. That shows an almost 3:1 GOP divide in favor of less migration.

Democrats split in the opposite direction — 39 percent want more migration and 16 percent want less migration.

A huge bloc of Democrats — 45 percent — say they favor the current level of immigration — but the poll did not explain what level of migration they favor.

The Harvard/Politico poll did not show if the respondents were “strong” or “somewhat” supporters of their chosen migration levels.

Amusingly, the Harvard/Politico poll blamed the shift of opinion against Title 42 and migration on Congress’ refusal to anger rational voters by further expanding immigration:

The fact that so many Americans also support using a public health measure to stop immigration unrelated to the pandemic is ultimately a reflection of lawmakers’ failure to make progress on immigration reform, said Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis, emeritus, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“They’re taking something used to control epidemics and are fighting for it because they know there’s no way to reach an agreement over immigration,” he says. “Congress can’t agree what to do, and they’re using it as a fig leaf a public health emergency measure.”

In Washington, Politico rarely recognizes the political impact of immigration’s economic and civic damage to ordinary Americans.

The poll result comes amid a growing backlash by the establishment media against public concerns about migration. The backlash includes heated claims that the national reckoning with post-1990s migration is based on a racist conspiracy theory dubbed “Replacement Theory.”