President Biden’s plan to expand the number of refugees allowed to enter the U.S. has been the least popular of his early moves since taking office, according to a new poll.
The Wednesday survey from Morning Consult evaluated how 28 of Biden’s executive actions have fared with the public.
Just 39 percent of those polled said they backed Biden’s plans to allow an additional 110,000 refugees to enter the U.S., raising a cap that was drastically lowered under Trump to a historic low of 15,000.
Opposition to raising the refugee cap was largely divided along party lines, though the 37 percent of independents opposed to it represented the “highest level of dissent against the orders tracked.”
Biden’s other immigration and justice policies fared better with voters.
Creating a task force to reunite parents and children separated at the border under the Trump administration was backed by 60 percent of voters while another directing a review of Trump-era immigration policies was backed by 55 percent of voters.
But those moves earned less support than a coronavirus-related plan to extend a moratorium on evictions or require a mask on public transit, which earned the backing of 67 percent and 78 percent of voters, respectively.
Many of Biden’s more specific immigration policies won the support of about half of those polled. Fifty-one percent of those polled back halting construction of the border wall, while 38 percent opposed the move. Forty-eight percent backed Biden’s choice to rescind the so-called Muslim ban that limited travel from many Muslim-majority nations, more than the 41 percent who do not.
Plans to include undocumented immigrants in the census was back by 45 percent of voters, while Biden’s call to pause Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy, which blocks migrants from entering the U.S. to apply for asylum, was backed by 46 percent of voters.
A memo from the Department of Justice that ended its use of private prisons for federal inmates was backed by 48 percent of voters, while repealing a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military polled at 53 percent support.
The polls were conducted with nearly 2,000 participants over three windows since Biden took office and have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.