GOP Voters: Trump, Congress Should Deal with Illegal Immigration First

A majority of Republican voters say there is no other issue more important than illegal immigration, telling pollsters that the problem at the U.S.-Mexico border should be addressed immediately.

A new Rasmussen Reports poll finds that about 52 percent of GOP voters say illegal immigration should be the first issue addressed by Congress and President Trump following the midterm elections.

A plurality of nearly 30 percent of all likely voters say illegal immigration should be first on the list of priorities for Trump and the Congress, while 66 percent of Trump’s base of support — those who say they strongly approve of the populist president — want illegal immigration addressed immediately.

CNN exit polls from the recent midterm elections reveal that a majority of swing state voters support Trump’s nationalist immigration agenda of building a wall on the southern border, reducing legal immigration levels, and stemming the inflow of foreign guest workers to open up U.S. jobs for American citizens.

Despite calls from the Trump base to focus on immigration, the president and the Republican-controlled Congress have recently turned their sights on a prison reform agenda that is favored by the billionaire GOP mega-donor Koch brothers, the George Soros-funded ACLU, and both political establishments.

The push for prison reform instead of a legislative agenda on Trump’s immigration platform comes as a caravan of 7,000 to 10,000 Central Americans heads to the U.S.-Mexico border. Hundreds from the caravan have already begun scaling the border fence in southern California, as captured in video footage.

Should illegal and legal immigration levels continue, the U.S. population will hit an unprecedented 404 million residents by 2060. The current legal immigration system would be responsible for importing 75 million new immigrants in the next four decades.

Every year the U.S. admits more than 1.5 million foreign nationals, with the vast majority deriving from family-based chain migration, whereby newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S. In 2016, the legal and illegal immigrant population reached a record high of 44 million. By 2023, the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the legal and illegal immigrant population of the U.S. will make up nearly 15 percent of the entire U.S. population.