A new CNN poll finds that one-third of Americans believe diversity is a threat to the national culture, a number that has tripled since 2019.
In a similar survey five years ago, 11% of respondents saw diversity as a “threat,” but now 33% say the same. Two-thirds of Americans say diversity enriches American culture, down from 82% in 2019. Specifically, survey participants were asked, “Overall, is the growing number of people of different races, ethnicities, and nationalities in the United States primarily a threat or primarily an enrichment to American culture?”
The survey results come in a volatile political environment, with Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), taking increasingly nativist and anti-immigrant stances in the final weeks of the campaign.
“They’re coming from the Congo. They’re coming from Africa. They’re coming from the Middle East. They’re coming from all over the world, including Asia,” Trump said at a rally on Long Island last week. “What’s happening in our country is they’re destroying the fabric of our country. We can’t take this anymore. We’ve got to get these people out. Give us a chance.”
Immigration has become a key issue for both presidential candidates. A recent Gallup poll found that about 77% of Americans believe there is an ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, and 55% want to see a decrease in overall migration. This comes despite a “significant” drop in the number of people crossing the border in recent months.
While Trump has taken a more radical stance on immigration, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has also pledged to crack down on illegal border crossers. She has said she wants to revive a congressional border bill supported by President Joe Biden that would expand executive powers to cut off access to the border and provide funding for more immigration judges and Border Patrol agents. The bill failed to pass the Senate in June after Trump voiced his opposition, urging Republicans to deny Democrats a political win.
“We know our immigration system is broken and we know what it takes to fix it – comprehensive reform, including stronger border security and a path to citizenship,” Harris said at a rally in Arizona in August.
A new CNN poll found that 49% of respondents said they trusted Trump to do a better job on immigration than Harris, while 35% said the same about Harris.
With just over a month until the November election, the presidential race is extremely close, with Harris currently leading Trump 48-47 in a separate CNN poll released on Tuesday.
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