US voters say immigration, not inflation, is top priority: Harvard-Harris poll

More voters are pointing to immigration as their top issue instead of inflation as the country goes into the 2024 election year.  

In a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll of 2,346 registered voters that was released on Monday, the survey found that 35 percent of respondents had immigration as their top concern and 32 percent named the topic of inflation. Immigration has jumped seven points from last month.  

The issue has been brought under higher public scrutiny in the last year as President Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security has failed to control the border crisis.  

In December alone, there were over 300,000 illegal immigrant encounters at the border, not counting those that went undetected. This set a record for number of encounters in one month.  

Followed by immigration and inflation, the "economy and jobs" were listed as a top concern by 25 percent of those surveyed. In fourth came crime and drugs tied with healthcare at 16 percent. 

Those with January 6 as their top issue amounted to 5 percent of respondents.  

Approval rating for President Joe Biden on the topline issues of the poll was 35 percent on immigration, with 61 percent of the poll respondents disapproving of the president's performance on the issue. With regard to inflation, 60 percent disapprove of Biden while only 36 percent of the voters surveyed approved of what he has done to keep down rising costs.  

This is despite the president's economic advisor saying that "employment is up... wages are up" earlier in the month. 



In a head-to-head matchup between Biden and former President Donald Trump, if the election were held today, according to the poll, Trump would have 48 percent of the vote over Biden's 41 percent.