Less than a third of voters prefer Biden over Trump to handle immigration: poll

Less than a third of voters prefer President Biden to handle immigration amid a still-raging crisis at the southern border, significantly lower than the number who trust former President Trump on the critical election issue, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

The poll from CNN/SSRS comes after last week’s presidential debate and found overall that Trump leads Biden by six points, with three-quarters of voters saying Democrats would have a better shot at holding the presidency in 2024 with someone else at the top of the ticket.

But on the subject of immigration, voters were asked if they think Biden or Trump would better handle the issue if president. Just 28% of voters prefer Biden, while a significantly higher 50% prefer Trump, and 21% said "neither of them."

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Migrants arrive at a makeshift camp after crossing the nearby border with Mexico near the Jacumba Hot Springs on Feb. 23, 2024, in San Diego, California. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)

The polling also shows that immigration is a top issue for many voters, with it coming third on the list of priorities behind the economy and protecting democracy, and ahead of abortion, health care, climate change and foreign policy.

The poll was conducted via web and telephone between June 28-30, with a representative sample of 1,274 respondents. 

The poll comes after a tough debate for Biden, which has raised questions for some Democrats about whether he should step aside as nominee. But it was also a debate in which the border crisis, now in its fourth year, was brought up repeatedly.

"They're killing our people in New York and California and every state in the union because we don't have borders anymore. Every state is now a border," Trump said. "And because of his ridiculous, insane and very stupid policies, people are coming in and they're killing our citizens at a level that we've never seen."

Republicans have blamed Biden-era policies for the crisis, while the administration has said it needs more funding and reform from Congress to fix a "broken" system. It has also pointed to a drop in numbers recently since Biden took executive action to limit some asylum claims.

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Biden pushed back, blaming Trump for obstructing bipartisan legislation and pointing to changes he had made from what he saw as cruel Trump-era policies.

"In addition to that, we found ourselves in a situation when [Trump] was president, he was separating babies from their mothers, put them in cages, making sure the families were separated. That's not the right way to go. 

"What I've done since I've changed the law, it's better than when he left office," he said.

Fox News' Remy Numa contributed to this report.