65 percent say reuniting separated families should be high priority: poll

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say that the Biden administration should make reuniting families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border by immigration officials a high priority, according to a new poll.

A survey from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 65 percent of U.S. adults believe that families being reunited should be a high priority for the U.S. government. More Americans said this issue should be a high priority than any other immigration-related issue in the poll.

Slightly lower but still widely supported was “providing safe treatment of unaccompanied minors at the border,” which 59 percent agreed should be a high priority and just 9 percent said should be a low priority.

Far fewer Americans said that issues including providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children should be a high priority, though 79 percent said that should be at least somewhat a priority for the U.S. government. Deporting immigrants living in the U.S. unlawfully was a high priority for just 29 percent of Americans, while 34 percent said it should be a low priority.

The deportation of immigrants living in the U.S. without legal status was one of just two issues in the survey to be seen as a “low priority” by more than a third of American adults, the other being penalizing companies that are seen as complicit in encouraging illegal immigration to the U.S.

President Biden’s handling of U.S. immigration policy and the current state of the U.S. border was also unpopular in the poll, with 56 percent of Americans disapproving of the job he has done in that area so far compared to 42 percent who said they approved.

The AP/NORC survey was conducted between March 26-29 with responses from 1,166 adults living in the U.S. The poll’s margin of error is 3.6 percentage points.