OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
As Democratic leaders in cities around the country hand out tens of millions of dollars in ‘safety net’ benefits for migrants who entered the country illegally, one of their key voter constituencies is moving away from the party and President Joe Biden.
In addition to losing black voters, according to a top pollster, support for former President Donald Trump’s border wall is now at a record high, the Washington Times reported last week.
The outlet reported: “Black men are drawn to former President Donald Trump. His critique that the surge of illegal immigrants is a drain on America rings true to them, said Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence and founder of its TIPP poll.”
“Now what is happening is that the government resources that used to go to help them in cities, that is being diverted to migrants. They’re asking, ‘Hey, what’s happening? You guys are cutting this stuff, and you are spending it on migrants,'” Mayur told the outlet, which added:
Immigration has soared to the top of voters’ priority issues, driven by the chaos at the border with Mexico.
A Pew study shows that 45% of Americans see the border as a “crisis” and 32% call it a “major problem.”
A majority said the surge of illegal immigrants leads to more crime, but concerns about what Pew called economic burdens, or the drain on safety net programs and government resources, were significant.
The report also said that support for building a border wall, which fell during Trump’s presidency, has since soared in several surveys.
Mayur told the Times that the distribution of illegal aliens throughout the country has brought more attention to the issue as crossings surged after Biden reversed nearly all of Trump’s strict immigration and border security policies on his first day in office.
“There is a change here, and that is caused by all the flood of migrants into the sanctuary cities. What once was basically dismissed by many as a sort of right-wing thing, it’s no more that,” he said. “There has never been a time where this issue is as wide open as it is now.”
He said that helps explain why black voters, and especially black men — once Democrat Party stalwarts — are moving away.
“This is an unintended consequence of uncontrolled immigration. It’s basically coming back to hurt Democrats,” Mayur told the Times. “I’m not sure whether over the long term they may benefit, but at least in the short term, over the next year or so, it is hurting them.”
In 2020, during Trump’s presidency, when the border situation was relatively stable, 34 percent of respondents told Gallup they favored increasing immigration levels, while only 28 percent wanted a reduction. However, the sentiment shifted last year, with only 26 percent supporting increases and 41 percent preferring a decrease, marking the highest rate in a decade.
Also, if Biden and his advisers believed that a quasi-open borders policy towards migrants would help him and Democrats with the Latino vote, they have all miscalculated, according to a new survey from the University of Houston.
Bill King, writing for Real Clear Politics, broke down the results of the survey, which was specific to Texas voters, a state with a heavy Latino population.
“The poll unsurprisingly projected that Biden and Trump were headed to another showdown in November, and that Trump was leading Biden in that rematch by 9% in Texas,” he wrote, citing the results. “However, what I suspect the Biden campaign team found shocking was that Biden was losing to Trump with Latino voters by a 47-41 margin.
“Only 55% of Latino Democratic primary voters said they were committed to vote for Biden. The other 45% were undecided,” King noted further.
