AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Throughout his presidency, Joe Biden has grappled with the surge of immigrants at the US-Mexico border, with members of both parties seeking divergent solutions to the crisis.
Former President Donald Trump has long advocated for a border wall, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has bused migrants to Democratic-led Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York to protest what conservatives have long said are the outsized costs that border states have had to shoulder in addressing illegal immigration.
Biden — who last week granted temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants who have already entered the United States — continues to receive low marks from voters on the issue.
In a newly released Washington Post-ABC News poll, only 23% of registered voters approved of Biden's handling of immigration at the southern border, compared to 62% of respondents who disapproved.
In February, 28% approved of Biden's handling of immigration, compared to 59% of respondents who disapproved, a reflection of the administration's continued struggles on the issue.
And it isn't just Republicans who have tussled with the administration over immigration.
Over the past year, the once-chummy relationship between Biden and New York City Mayor Eric Adams has grown cold as the city has had to shoulder massive costs to house and feed the stream of roughly 110,000 migrants that have arrived in the city from the southern border.
Adams earlier this month said that the unforeseen expenses of the migrant crisis could cost the city $12 billion over the course of three fiscal years.
The Democratic mayor recently attracted national headlines when he told attendees at a Manhattan town hall that the migrant crisis "will destroy" the city.
"Let me tell you something New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to — I don't see an ending to this," he said.
