Opinion poll bares Joe’s border woe

More Americans disapprove than approve of President Biden’s handling of the influx of unaccompanied children at the southern border, a poll has found.

Forty percent of Americans disagree with how Biden is responding to the situation at the Mexican border, while 24 percent agree, according to the Associated Press-NORC poll released Monday. Thirty-five percent had no opinion.

On party lines, 66 percent of Republicans disapprove, along with 15 percent of Democrats. Only 8 percent of Republicans approve, as do 44 percent of Democrats.

Forty percent of Democrats and 26 percent of Republicans had no opinion.

Asked whether they approved of Biden’s handling of immigration in general, 42 percent said they did.

But those numbers are far off the 61 percent of Americans who approve of the overall job Biden is doing.

“I don’t know how to politically correctly say this: I do feel that, because there’s this new administration, that people feel that they can come to the country,” said respondent Mindy Kiehl, 40, a real-estate agent in Erie, Pa.

“I get it. They’re seeking refuge,” said Kiehl, who otherwise approves of Biden’s handling of the presidency. “But bringing these children, it’s not good for the children, it’s not good for the families.”

At the same time, the poll showed that immigration is a high priority for most Americans.

Fifty-nine percent said providing safe treatment to unaccompanied minors when they are detained should be a high priority, and 65 percent said the same about reuniting families at the border.

The survey of 1,166 adults was conducted from March 26 to March 29 and has a 3.6 percentage-point margin of error.

The Biden administration’s reversal of former President Donald Trump’s border policies has prompted a flood of Central American and Mexican migrants at the US border, including thousands of unescorted children.