New Poll Sinks Dems’ Hopes That Voters Will Forget All About Kamala Harris’ Record On Immigration

A newly-released survey indicates that the vast majority of registered voters believe Vice President Kamala Harris is a supporter of “open borders.”

Sixty-nine percent of voters believe Harris is for open borders, further demonstrating a vulnerability on this issue as she begins her presidential candidacy, according to a Harvard-Harris poll released on Tuesday. Voters across the political spectrum also generally agree with the statement, with 56% of Democrats, 82% of Republicans and 69% of independents responding that they believe the vice president supports open border policies.

A mere 31% of voters said they believe Harris stood against open borders, including only 44% of Democrats.

At the same time, respondents to the Harvard-Harris survey overwhelmingly opposed the idea of open borders, with 68% of voters answering that they stood against such policies. When split by party, Republicans and independents opposed the idea by wide margins, and Democrats were practically even, with 51% answering they supported open borders while 49% said they opposed them.

The survey found additional support for hawkish border policies among the U.S. population, with 73% of voters favoring a policy goal to “seal the border, and stop the migrant invasion.” A majority of Republicans, independents and even Democrats agreed with this policy statement.

The poll’s findings follow Harris’ emergence as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race earlier this month. Since becoming a presidential candidate, Harris’ record on immigration has come under greater scrutiny and her allies have attempted to downplay her responsibilities as “border czar” within the Biden administration.

Other surveys released this year indicate American voters are increasingly shifting right on immigration and border issues, including Latino voters. The hawkish shift among voters coincides with the ongoing  border crisis that has affected not only border communities, but cities hundreds of miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Border Patrol agents have encountered more than seven million noncitizens unlawfully crossing into the U.S. since the beginning of the Biden administration, according to the latest data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Major cities like New York City, Chicago and Denver have spent well over $1 billion to house and feed thousands of asylum seekers within their jurisdictions.

The Harvard-Harris survey was conducted among 2,196 registered voters from July 26-28 and includes a margin-of-error of 2.1 percentage points.

The Harris campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.