Americans agree about immigration - even if lawmakers don't: Republican and ... trends now
Republicans and Democratic voters agree on more about immigration than the gridlock in Washington DC suggests.
Most voters say people flows across the southern border are a problem, and want to tackle this by hiring border guards and immigration judges and cutting the number of those seeking asylum.
That's according to a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, which was carried out after a bipartisan immigration package released in Congress fell apart last month.
US President Joe Biden said the bill collapsed under pressure from Donald Trump, accusing his predecessor and likely rival in November's election of using border chaos as a campaign issue.
Democratic and Republican voters want more guards at the southern border
Former president Donald Trump's border wall is popular among Republicans, but not Democrats
The survey of 1,282 adults show broad support for measures in the torpedoed legislation.
The most popular option asked about is hiring more border patrol agents, which is supported by about eight in 10 Republicans and about half of Democrats.
Hiring more immigration judges and court personnel is also favored among majorities of both parties.
About half of Americans also support cutting the number of immigrants who are allowed to seek asylum in the US when they arrive at the border.
But there's a much bigger partisan divide there, with more Republicans than Democrats favoring this strategy.
Building a wall — former President Donald Trump's signature policy goal — is the least popular and most polarizing option of the four asked about.
About four in 10 favor building a wall, including 77 percent of Republicans but just 12 percent of Democrats.
President Joe Biden appeared with his Democratic predecessors this week to raise cash in an election campaign focussed on immigration and other issues
Migrants walk in a caravan in the municipality through the state of Chiapas, in southern Mexico, headed for the US
Donna Lyon is a Democratic-leaning independent voter from Cortland, New York.
She says a border wall would do little to stop migrants, but she supports hiring more border agents and more immigration court judges to deal with the growing backlog of cases.
'That would stop all the backup that we have,' Lyon told AP.
Congress just recently approved money to hire about 2,000 more Border
