Gallup: Immigration Top Issue for Republicans, Threefold Increase Among Americans

Illegal immigration is the top concern among Republicans and the third most important concern for all Americans, which is a drastic change from June, when Breitbart Texas released leaked photos of illegal immigrant juveniles being warehoused that forced the mainstream media to cover the issue. 

A new national Gallup poll found that immigration “rose from 4% to 15% among all adults” as the top problem. But the heightened concern has been most pronounced among Republicans. Gallup found that:

In the past three months, 20% of national adults who self-identify as Republican named immigration as a top issue, compared with 8% of Democrats. In the first half of the year, a nearly identical 4% of Republicans and 3% of Democrats named immigration as the country’s most important problem.

As a result, the Republican establishment, which has long been squeamish on immigration issues, has finally started to run on the issue in the midterms, even though they have been more lukewarm than conservatives and pro-enforcement advocates would like. 

What changed since June, when Republicans and Americans were not so concerned?

The mainstream media actually covered the border crisis, but they did so only after  Breitbart Texas published the leaked photos in June, which shifted public sentiment on the issue. The photos were one of the most important factors in halting President Barack Obama’s planned executive amnesty. 

Since June, Obama’s approval ratings have plummeted on illegal immigration, reaching record lows in some national polls. In July, illegal immigration was actually the top problem facing Americans in the Gallup poll, as illegal immigrant juveniles, 90% of whom are adults, started flooding across the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Because of the opposition to illegal immigration and his potential executive amnesty, Obama decided to postpone his executive amnesty until after the midterms to give vulnerable Senate Democrats a better chance of retaining their seats. 

The poll also found 25% of Hispanics see immigration as the most important problem they face, compared to 13% from the first half of the year. Hispanics do not differ from other Americans on nearly every other issue.

Gallup surveyed “3,062 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia,” from July-September, and the survey’s margin of error is +/- two percentage points for the national sample. Gallup surveyed 212 Hispanics, and the margin of error is +/- eight percentage points for the Hispanic sample.