Informed Americans Back Border Security. No Wonder the Media Isn’t Doing Their Job
The results of the December 2022 Harvard-Harris Poll on immigration, in which participants were informed about the actual number of people crossing our borders illegally, present an interesting dilemma. A full two-thirds of Americans believe the Biden administration’s executive orders actively encourage illegal immigration, and even more agree that people crossing the border illegally should be returned to Mexico. A whopping 79 percent think Title 42 should remain in place, the last remaining policy that allows overwhelmed border security agencies to remove at least some people who enter the country illegally.
The results quite clearly show that the American people are aware that the border crisis exists, is caused by bad policy, and deserves action. Despite their support for stricter controls, relatively few are aware of exactly how desperate the situation is. The polling shows 75 percent wrongly believe the annual number of illegal entries is under 1 million, well below the actual figure of at least 3 million. After being informed of the true number of illegal entries every year, a 67 percent supermajority of these voters want new, stricter border controls to stop this invasion.
FAIR has been one of very few organizations willing to publicize the scale of illegal entries into the United States. The correct figure of at least three million illegal entries per year is based on publicly available and easily accessed data. Even Politifact, the “fact-checker” in service of the open-borders lobby, resorts to “mostly true,” a hedge they commonly use when they find the facts in question to be inconvenient, but ultimately admits the figure is completely accurate. It’s no wonder, then, that most mainstream reporting on immigration opts to ignore the full total almost entirely and focus on daily crossings or human interest stories rather than the quite shocking bigger picture.
FAIR and other groups concerned about uncontrolled migration are swimming against a concerted effort to hide facts and maintain the status quo or, worse, an even larger influx or amnesty. Americans strongly support tighter border enforcement even though they vastly underestimate the scale of illegal immigration, and that support only gets stronger when they’re made aware of the facts. The open-borders lobby benefits when little attention is paid to how badly the Biden administration’s policies have damaged our border security.
Wider awareness of the true scope of the illegal immigration problem remains both an absolute necessity and FAIR’s goal. Illegal immigration is a defining issue of our time because it touches every community in every state, and this latest poll is yet more proof that the issue is galvanizing. Action starts with awareness, and the new year and new Congress offer a golden opportunity to turn the lessons of this poll and the midterm elections into real change that secures our borders.