Poll: Public Blames Biden for Migration Deal Breakdown

The public largely blames President Joe Biden for the failed migration deal in Congress, despite Democrat efforts to Ipsos.

The February 9-10 poll asked: “How much, if at all, do you blame each of the following for Congress not passing legislation intended to decrease the numbers of illegal border crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border?”

Only 29 percent of the 528 adult respondents blamed Trump “a great deal.” In contrast, 35 percent blamed President Joe Biden a great deal.

However, both sets of respondents likely consist of partisans whose votes are already locked in for each party. But an additional 10 percent blamed Trump “a good amount” — and an additional 14 percent blamed Biden “a good amount.”

So Trump’s blame score is 39 percent, Biden’s score is 49 percent, and 20 percent dodged the question.

The greater blame on Biden is “maddening,” progressive Greg Sargent wrote on February 13.

The new poll undercuts Democrats’ claims that the New York reelection of retired Rep. Tom Suozzi on February 13 is a confidence-building win for the Democrats’ new rhetorical style about migration.

“Tom Suozzi’s victory last night – due in part to his decision to go on offense on the border and attack his opponents’ opposition to the bipartisan border deal – is proof that the politics of the border are changing before our eyes,” Sen.  Chris Murphy (D-CT) claimed in a February 14 memo.

Murphy helped negotiate the deal with GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). But the deal was so fraudulent, pro-migration, and lopsided that it was torpedoed by a revolt among populist-minded GOP Senators on February 7. This shocking defeat spotlights the GOP leaders’ new focus on populist concerns about migration’s economic and civic burdens.

Murphy continued:

Democrats want to fix the problem. We have proof. Republicans want to exploit the problem to divide us. We have proof. A new, winning argument on border security and immigration writes itself in 100 words:

“Republicans said the border is in crisis but then they voted against the bipartisan bill, written by their own members, that would fix the crisis. They voted against it for one reason: Donald Trump told them he wanted to keep chaos at the border because it helps him politically. Republicans don’t care about fixing the border. They only care about using the border as a political issue to demonize hard working immigrants. The only party that is willing to vote for legislation to secure our border and protect and improve our nation’s history of safe and legal immigration is Democrats.”

The Democrat Senate leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), is echoing Murphy’s claim. The New York Times reported on February 14:

“We have now made the border an issue where Democrats are on their front foot, whereas before all this happened, we were on our back foot,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said in an interview on Wednesday. “Trump almost handed us the issue on a silver platter when he said he didn’t want to do it for political purposes after saying the border is an emergency.”

“It has been turned from a negative issue to a positive issue. Not totally positive, but overall positive,” he said.

But the YouTube poll provided little optimism for congressional Democrats.

For example, the Ipsos poll showed that 31 percent blamed Democrats “a great deal” for the defeat of the border bill. Yet the poll also showed that 31 percent gave the GOP “a great deal” of the blame.

The New York Times article also noted that Suozzi’s win had other causes than the Democrats’ feint toward immigration reform:

That bipartisan deal’s failure did not feature prominently in advertising in this House race. But Mr. Suozzi did speak about it as he took some unusually hard-line stances for a Democrat, including calls to temporarily shut down the border and deport migrants who assault the police.

The Wall Street Journal on February 15 hinted at the weakness of the GOP candidate, who was hand-picked by the New York GOP establishment:

Mazi Pilip, the GOP’s candidate, called the Lankford deal an “absolute nonstarter,” but she didn’t have a real substitute. In her debate with Mr. Suozzi, she simply repeated that she wanted to secure the border, build the wall, tighten the asylum rules, and so forth.

DEVELOPING: This is Mazi Pilip (@maziforcongress), the Republican candidate for the seat of George Santos, the accused liar and fraudster. She lost. She defines herself as "Nassau County Legislator. Former IDF Paratrooper. Mother of 7. Republican Candidate for Congress NY-03."… pic.twitter.com/0WhMhgSyAf

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) February 14, 2024

The candidate was “hopelessly flawed,” Breitbart News reported on February 14. Yet Suozzi’s win was just 8 percent, or half of his 16-point win in 2020, in a district that Backed Biden over Trump by eight points in 2020.

Also, Murphy admitted that Biden’s migration policy is toxic for Democrats — unless the Democrats can reframe the issue:

A recent Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll showed that in states that will decide the electoral college, immigration and the economy are the two top issues for voters, and for key independent voters, Trump holds a jarring 49-22 advantage over Biden on the issue of immigration. Compare this to 2020, when Biden had comfortable leads over Trump on voters’ confidence to handle the top two issues of that year: the economy and the pandemic.

As Democrats line up behind the Suozzi/Murphy strategy, GOP leaders are also reframing the crisis with a new focus on the huge economic burden that is being imposed on Americans by Biden’s migration.

Up to now, GOP committees and candidates have played up the distant terror, border “caravans” and crime angles to Biden’s migration. But on Wednesday, House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) emphasized the growing economic and civic burden on ordinary Americans:

[Americans] are crying out to the Biden administration to secure the border. This is not a Republican issue. It’s an issue for every single person, and everybody knows it.

We know the stories of children being poisoned by fentanyl. Cities [are] being overwhelmed by migrant surges. House Republicans have shown we are listening to and holding the administration accountable for this catastrophe. We’re listening to the people, taking action to hold Biden accountable.

“It’s time for Washington to start showing some love to Americans — Valentine’s Day is a good day to point this out,” Johnson added.

A new report from the Congressional Budget Office reinforces the vast evidence that the federal policy of Extraction Migration shifts family wages and workplace investment toward Wall Street, real estate, coastal states, and government.

The economic policy is very unpopular, in part, because it also diverts politicians’ focus away from American communities and the rising “deaths of despair” among discarded Americans.