WASHINGTON — Most Americans say President Biden has made the cost of living and illegal immigration — two of the major issues in this year’s general election — worse rather than better during his term of office.
According to a survey from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research published Friday, 58% say Biden’s approach to the cost of living either “hurt a little” or “hurt a lot.” By contrast, just 18% say the president had helped ease the pressure with his policies.
Another majority (56%) said the same of the president’s handling of immigration and border security, with only 16% saying Biden had helped the issue.
A Gallup survey from last month found 55% of Americans said they worry about inflation “a great deal,” with 52% saying the same about the economy and 48% saying the same of illegal immigration.
Meanwhile, 40% said Trump had helped the cost of living issue while president, giving him a 22-percentage point lead over Biden, while 46% said he had bolstered border security — a 30-point edge over his rival.
In all, consumer prices are up 19% since Biden took office in January 2021, according to federal data, while the annual inflation rate remained elevated at 3.5% as of March.
Meanwhile, the US recorded a record-breaking 2.5 million illegal immigrant apprehensions in fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30, which was followed by an all-time monthly record of nearly 302,000 in December.
Most people who illegally cross the border are being released into the US to await rulings on their asylum claims in badly backlogged proceedings. They are entitled to work permits after an initial six-month wait period.
Biden ended Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that required asylum applicants to await decisions south of the border, which Republicans say created an incentive for more migrants to cross illegally.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in January that more than 85% of those detained for illegally crossing the border were being released into the US — up from 71% in October and 74% in November.
In the AP-NORC poll, 47% of Americans said the 77-year-old Trump had made US relations with other countries and abortion laws worse — his worst score on any of the issues polled.
The 45th president appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted in June 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade and scrap the federal right to an abortion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Trump has sought to moderate voter blowback by encouraging Republican-led states to continue to allow abortions past a certain point of the pregnancy in the cases of rape, incest or medical conditions that threaten the life of the mother.
Biden has sought to rally voters on the abortion issue, saying Wednesday in response to an Arizona Supreme Court ruling that criminalized nearly all pregnancy terminations in that state that voters should “elect me.”
Trump said Friday that the Arizona court “went too far” in re-imposing a law from 1864 and that the state legislature should “act as fast as possible” to pass new abortion rights.
The poll found Trump also has trouble with voters on environmental and election-related issues, with 46% saying he made climate change worse and the same percentage saying he undermined voting rights and election security.
Biden and the Democrats defied expectations of a “red wave” in the 2022 midterm elections by focusing on abortion rights and Trump’s actions ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, in which his supporters battled police to disrupt certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory.
The AP-NORC poll surveyed 1,204 US adults April 4-8, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.9 percentage points.