New Poll Shows Widespread Opposition to Amnesty

President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are in the process of trying to shepherd through a massive tax and spend bill, the Build Back Better Act (BBB). The massive $1.85 trillion spending package includes $100 billion to provide a form of amnesty for up to 7.1 million illegal aliens. Following crushing electoral defeats in Virginia and New Jersey, Democrats now believe that passing the BBB Act is their last shot at “transformational change” before potential losses in the 2022 midterms.

A new poll by OnMessage shows that a majority of voters – including independents – oppose the Democrats’ plan to amnesty millions of illegal aliens. Pollster Nathan Klein penned a memo highlighting their findings to the National Republican Congressional Committee, arguing that the immigration elements of the BBB Act are unpopular with voters and will cost Democrats seats in the 2022 midterms. The memo states that “this polling shows broad, powerful, and intense opposition to measures that erase or eliminate border and immigration control.”

The polling memo has a number of findings that show clear opposition to the proposed amnesty measures in the House of Representatives’ BBB Act text. A full 59 percent of voters – including 70 percent of independents – oppose granting amnesty to illegal aliens. Fifty-six percent of voters and 63 percent of independents oppose giving benefits such as work authorization and federal aid to illegal aliens. Sixty-three percent of voters and 72 percent of independents opposed the Biden administration’s plan to award $450,000 to every illegal alien separated from family members at the border in 2018.

This poll reflects lessons learned from the Virginia and New Jersey 2021 elections. Voters rejected lawlessness and defeated candidates that opposed law and order. Immigration plays an important role in that sentiment. The Biden administration’s border policies are disastrous. President Biden and Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas dismantled almost all of the policies put in place by the Trump administration that kept illegal immigration under control. Worse, their policies encouraged illegal immigration by signaling to would-be-migrants that the days of immigration enforcement are over. Indeed, President Biden’s and Secretary Mayorkas’ policies have all but abolished Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as an effective law enforcement agency. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Border Patrol languish under the administration’s abandonment of enforcing our immigration laws.

This polling shows that those policies have had a profound impact politically. In the 2021 elections Republican, independent, and moderate Democratic voters punished Democrats at the ballot box for their embrace of chaos at our borders and in American communities. This poll coupled with the results of November 2 should be a wakeup call to moderates in Congress: pass the amnesty-laden Build Back Better Act at your own peril.