CNN Poll: Most Americans say now is not the time to end Trump-era Title 42 border policy
Forty-three percent of Americans say it’s time to end Title 42 and return to pre-pandemic procedures, while 57% say it’s not. But those who say it’s not the right time are split, with 29% saying it should remain in place indefinitely and 27% saying the government needs more time to end the policy.
A majority of Democrats, 64%, want to see Title 42 end now, with 28% saying the government needs more time and 8% saying it should remain in place indefinitely. More than 8 in 10 Republicans say it’s not the time to end the restriction, including 57% who say the pandemic-era measure should remain in place indefinitely, 26% who say the government needs more time to prepare and 17% who feel it should end immediately.
Public opinion of migrants
Fifty-six percent of Americans favor allowing migrants from Central American countries to seek asylum in the United States, a modest downtick from 63% in April 2021. A year ago, strong support for allowing migrants to seek asylum outweighed strong opposition; in the most recent poll, strong feelings are about equally prevalent on both sides (22% strongly favor it, while 23% strongly oppose it).
A majority of 54%, however, says that minimizing the number of people trying to enter the United States should be a higher priority than allowing people to seek asylum in the country, with just 45% saying asylum-seekers should be the higher priority.
Views are sharply divided along partisan lines. Roughly three-quarters of Democrats (74%) favor allowing Central American migrants to seek asylum in the US, with 62% saying that allowing people to seek asylum should take priority over minimizing the number of people seeking to enter the US. Among independents, those numbers are 59% and 50%, respectively. Just 35% of Republicans favor allowing Central American migrants to seek asylum, and only 22% think asylum-seekers should be a priority for policymakers.
Immigration not a top focus
Immigration isn’t currently at the forefront of most Americans’ minds: Only 10% of Americans consider it to be the top issue facing the nation, compared with the 50% who say the biggest concern is the economy, according to results from the same poll released earlier this week. Only 41% say they’ve followed the news about Title 42 even somewhat closely, with just 12% saying they’ve followed the news very closely. Strong interest in the topic is more common on the right, with 25% of Republicans and just 6% of Democrats saying they’ve followed the news very closely. Even within the GOP, attention is concentrated among conservatives, with 62% of conservative Republicans saying they are following at least somewhat closely, compared with about 4 in 10 among moderate or liberal Republicans, moderate or conservative Democrats and liberal Democrats alike.
About two-thirds of Americans, 68%, say they currently consider the situation at the US-Mexico border to be a crisis. That’s down from 78% last April, a shift that reflects lessening concerns among both Democrats and independents.
But public unhappiness with the government’s approach to immigration is widespread.
Just 27% of Americans approve of the way migrants attempting to cross the southern border are being treated by the US government, similar to the 31% who approved under the Trump administration in 2019. A majority of 62% currently says the US government is doing too little to try to enforce immigration laws, with 26% saying the government is doing the right amount and 12% saying it’s doing too much. Specifically on Biden’s handling of immigration, 34% approve and 66% disapprove.
The CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS from April 28-May 1 among a random national sample of 1,007 adults surveyed online or by phone after being recruited using probability-based methods. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
