President Joe Biden is facing mounting criticism from his own party over his administration's handling of border security.
Border Patrol encounters of migrants at the southern border alone jumped 27% from June to July, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data. A Washington Post report on preliminary CBP data from August revealed a 30% jump in encounters from July to August, calling it "an all-time high."
A Gallup poll from February showed that even before this recent spike in encounters, "the percentage of Democrats dissatisfied and desiring less immigration was nearly nonexistent in 2021, at 2%, before rising to 11% last year and 19% now." Independents, who are most likely to be the most targeted voters in upcoming elections, expressed dissatisfaction with the Biden administration's handling of the border crisis, "doubling since 2021, rising from 19% at that time to 36% today," the poll said.
The voters' increasing concern about the immigration crisis reflected in the poll has not been lost on Democratic lawmakers.
