CBS Poll: 8-in-10 Americans Support Reducing Immigration, Stricter Vetting

The overwhelming majority of Americans say they want less overall immigration to the United States, a new poll finds.

A CBS News/YouGov Poll shows that even when Americans are not told the current level of overall immigration to the U.S. — where more than a million green cards are awarded, more than a million temporary visas are allotted, and hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are added to the population annually — they continue to back reductions and limits over expansions and uncontrolled migration.

The poll asks Americans, “What do you think U.S. immigration policy should generally be?” About 61 percent of Americans said “some immigration” should be allowed but “based on strict criteria,” suggesting an overall reduction with a more rigorous vetting and assimilation policy.

About 19 percent of Americans said they want to “stop most or all immigration” to the U.S., while 20 percent said “allow a lot of immigration, including most or all people who want to enter,” suggesting support for an open border policy.

The poll shows that Americans are consistently dissatisfied with the nation’s long-running mass immigration policy that has resulted in the highest foreign-born population in American history at 46.4 million. Without an overall reduction in immigration levels, the foreign-born population is projected to hit nearly 70 million by 2060.

In February, a Gallup survey revealed that 35 percent of Americans want immigration reduced while just nine percent want more immigration to the U.S. That is a dramatic 22-point shift since the end of former President Trump’s term when 19 percent wanted less immigration and 15 percent wanted more immigration.

The poll comes as President Joe Biden’s administration tears down border controls that are expected to bring about half a million foreign nationals to the U.S.-Mexico border every month. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) recently told Breitbart News he expected about 30,000 foreign nationals to arrive at the border every day — the largest border surge in American history.

Such an enormous wave of immigration would have drastic impacts on American communities.

In terms of housing, alone, where single-family rents have skyrocketed to new heights — increasing by more than 24 percent year-to-year — a continuing rise of immigration-driven population growth is likely to send prices even higher.

A 2017 study, published in the Journal of Housing Economics, found that “increases in immigration into a metropolitan statistical area are linked with rising rents and home prices in that metropolitan statistical area and neighboring metropolitan statistical areas.”

The U.S. population does not have to rapidly increase to record highs. In the past, legal immigration moratoriums have been implemented. Research has shown that halting all immigration to the U.S. would stabilize the population to a comfortable 329 million residents in the next four decades.

The CBS News/YouGov Poll surveyed over 2,000 American adults from April 5 to April 8. The margin of error is +/- 2.8 percentage points.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.