The majority of American voters oppose releasing border crossers applying for asylum into the interior of the United States while they await their court hearings, a new poll finds.
The latest Harvard/Harris Poll reveals that about 2-in-3 Americans, or 66 percent, said they oppose the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) releasing border crossers into the U.S. while they await their asylum claims process. Instead, voters said border crossers should be immediately turned back to Mexico while awaiting their asylum hearing.
Less than 35 percent of all voters said they supported releasing border crossers into the U.S. — including only 32 percent of swing voters and less than 30 percent of self-described “moderates.”
Meanwhile, nearly seven-in-ten swing voters, or 68 percent, said they want to see border crossers turned back to Mexico when they attempt to claim asylum at the southern border. Likewise, 85 percent of Republican voters and 55 percent of black Americans said they, too, wanted border crossers seeking asylum to be turned back to Mexico.
A plurality of U.S. voters, 47 percent, also told Harvard/Harris pollsters that they want the asylum system at the southern border to be tightened — a plan that has been endorsed by President Trump and previously enacted by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
The vast majority, 73 percent, of Republicans want the country’s asylum process tightened to prevent mass fraud and abuse of the system. A plurality of swing voters, 47 percent, agree that the asylum process should be tightened. Less than 20 percent of swing voters said asylum to the U.S. should be “loosened.”
As Breitbart News has detailed, Justice Department data find that border crossers have an 88 percent chance of evading deportation if they claim “credible fear” at the southern border. Only half of the foreign nationals who evade immediate deportation by claiming credible fear, however, end up filing for asylum status after they are released into the U.S.
The Harvard/Harris Poll discovered that the overwhelming majority of Americans are unaware of skyrocketing illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. For example, less than 2-in-15 U.S. voters correctly estimated the current flow of illegal immigration to the country, where more than 400,000 border apprehensions were conducted last Fiscal Year.
At current rates, experts project there to be 863,000 border apprehensions this Fiscal Year, though this only counts illegal aliens who are caught at the border and does not include those who successfully cross. Experts predict that potentially half a million illegal aliens will successfully cross the southern border this year, undetected by Border Patrol.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.