Nearly nine years after former President Donald Trump first proposed building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration and border security continue to define the concerns of Republican voters. [Source]
Early primary exit polls and the voices of key political allies confirm this sentiment, suggesting a potential pathway for Trump’s return to the White House.
The importance of this issue was highlighted in Trump’s recent victories in the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Republican primary.
Notably, in New Hampshire, 41% of Republican voters identified immigration as their top concern, surpassing the economy at 31%, according to a Fox News voter analysis. CBS News and CNN exit surveys supported this prioritization of immigration.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN), has been vocal about the challenges at the border under the leadership of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. [Source]
Green’s critique of Mayorkas’ handling of border security reflects a broader Republican dissatisfaction with the current administration’s policies. “Our thorough and fair investigation exposed Secretary Mayorkas’ abuse of power and refusal to comply with the law,” Green stated, addressing the surge in illegal border crossings, which reached nearly 2.5 million in fiscal year 2023.
Pollster John McLaughlin, speaking on the Just the News, No Noise television show, acknowledged that while New Hampshire shares a border with Canada, the issues there pale in comparison to those at the southern border. “The Biden administration is totally derelict in enforcing the border,” McLaughlin stated.
The situation at the border is not viewed in isolation. Scott Rasmussen, another influential pollster, pointed out on the John Solomon Reports podcast the broader implications of the border crisis.
“People are connecting the border crisis with the Fentanyl crisis… They are seeing weaknesses in national security that connects the border problem to what’s happening in the Middle East or Ukraine,” Rasmussen explained.
Trump’s national spokeswoman, Liz Harrington, concurred with this perspective, highlighting the campaign’s intent to emphasize the border crisis’s linkage to other national issues. “It’s not just the economy, that it affects, obviously, the rule of law. That is our fundamental sovereignty, but the drugs, our enemies, what they’re doing, being able to do with a wide open border, it is an invasion,” Harrington stated.
Former acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan echoed these concerns, asserting that public awareness of border issues has reached a critical point. “Every state is a border state,” Morgan said, underlining the national impact of border security.
Adding to this discourse, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA), expressed the growing frustration among Americans. “The fact is, the American people are fed up,” he stated, pointing to the widespread opposition to policies like non-citizens voting and amnesty.
With the 2024 elections on the horizon, the focus on these topics may very well shape the political climate and influence the choices at the ballot box.