The weeks have been grinding by with no improvements in the crisis on the southern border. That region has still yet to see a visit from Vice President Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s immigration czar or border czar or whichever czar she is this week. Despite much of the mainstream media trying to paint a happy face on the situation and mostly refusing to utter the word “crisis,” people have been noticing. Joe Biden continues to receive better approval ratings on some issues than Donald Trump ever did, but when it comes to immigration and border security, he’s getting a failing grade in the latest polling coming out at Fox News. Just how bad is it for Uncle Joe? The word “underwater” doesn’t really cover it unless he’s hiding some scuba gear we haven’t heard about.
By a stark 46-15 percent margin, voters say U.S. border security is worse today than it was two years ago, according to the latest Fox News survey.
So it’s not surprising voters give President Biden his worst job ratings on border security and immigration. By an 18-point margin, more disapprove (52 percent) than approve (34 percent) of his performance on immigration. Views are nearly identical on border security, as just over half disapprove (51 percent vs. 35 percent approve).
Biden’s best ratings come on coronavirus: 58 percent approve and 34 percent disapprove. His marks are lower on health care (48 percent approve, 37 percent disapprove), the economy (48-42), foreign policy (42-41), and guns (36-49).
Joe Biden continues to score well on his handling of the pandemic for some reason. When you consider that most of the “handling” is being done at the state and local level and Biden really isn’t doing anything significantly different than what Trump had been doing, I suppose he’s just inheriting a situation that people weren’t all that upset about to begin with, at least in terms of how the vaccinations are rolling out. He also has a plurality of support for his handling of the economy, but he hasn’t jacked up everyone’s taxes yet, so that may still change.
It’s the immigration and border security numbers that are truly awful. A full majority of 52% disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration while barely a third approve. The numbers on border security are almost identical at 35-51. The two issues are likely intertwined for most voters to the point where you’d be unlikely to see a significant difference on the two questions.
The really curious number we’ve been seeing thus far comes on the question of guns. It’s one of the few areas where Biden scores almost as poorly as he does on immigration, being fully underwater at 36-49. I don’t think we should really read too much into that one because Biden is very likely in a no-win situation. Half of the country values their Second Amendment rights and Biden’s executive orders and support for gun bans in Congress turn those people off. But since nothing really concrete in terms of gun control is making any progress in the Senate, the gun-grabbers are probably also giving Uncle Joe a thumbs down for failing to get anything done.
Returning to the immigration issue, what we’re seeing is yet another example of how completely out of tune the Biden administration is with much of the country. Americans value legal immigration and are very generous in that regard. But open borders is not a policy that’s embraced by many beyond the furthest left fringe of Biden’s own party. There are more examples, but the border security issue is the one drawing most of the attention currently. And catering exclusively to one wing of your own party is a pretty good formula for blowing the midterms. Don’t be surprised if that’s precisely what happens next year.
