Pew: More Than 8-in-10 Americans Call Mass Migration a ‘Threat’ to U.S.

US Customs and Border Protection agent checks documents of a small group of migrants, who
File Photo: PAUL RATJE/AFP/Getty Images

More than eight-in-ten American adults call mass migration at least a “threat” to the United States, a survey finds.

The latest Pew Research Center survey reveals that the overwhelming majority of Americans see the mass migration of people from one country to another as a threat in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis.

About 42 percent of American adults call mass migration a “major threat” to the U.S. Another 39 percent say mass migration is a “minor threat” to the county, while less than 20 percent of American adults see no threat from mass migration.

Likewise, nearly six-in-ten Republican voters and 29 percent of Democrats say mass migration is a major threat to the U.S. When broken down demographically by age, a plurality of 30- to 49-year-olds call mass migration a major threat, along with about 50 percent of Americans at least 50 years old.

The survey is just the latest to show widespread skepticism and opposition to the nation’s continued legal immigration levels — whereby about 1.2 million foreign nationals are admitted annually — amid mass unemployment of about 22 million Americans.

An Ipsos Poll released this week found that nearly eight-in-ten Americans want a full pause on immigration to the U.S. — a policy that would come after four decades of mass immigration.

Since 1980 — 15 years after former President Lyndon B. Johnson expanded immigration — the U.S. has not admitted fewer than 525,000 legal immigrants in a single year. For 40 years, annual legal immigration admissions have hovered around one million.

The U.S., at current legal immigration levels, imports more foreign nationals than any other country in the world and has done so for more than two decades.

Trump’s authority over immigration, like all other presidents, is vast and broad.

In June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the president’s control over legal immigration. In Trump v. Hawaii, the court stated that presidents have extraordinarily broad discretion to admit or exclude foreign nationals from the U.S. when they believe doing so is in the national interest.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

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