Poll: the percentage of Democrats who see the border "crisis" climb by 17 points since January due to soaring migrant families

More than a third of Americans say that illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border is in "crisis", up 11 percentage points since January, as Democrats have become more and more concerned by the question, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

At the same time, the US accuses congressional Democrats and President Trump of being responsible for the situation, the poll reveals, indicating that both political parties face immigration challenges. before the presidential election cycle of 2020.

The Trump administration struggles to cope with the influx of migrant families arriving at the southern border with Mexico, where the number of apprehensions by the Customs and Border Protection has exceeded 100,000 in March , the largest monthly total in a dozen years, according to federal data. Although Trump responded by setting up a new directorate at the Department of Homeland Security three weeks ago, the number of migrants was about to reach a similar level in April, authorities said.

[Read full poll results | How the poll was conducted]

The survey, conducted by cell phone and fixed between April 22 and 25, reveals that 35% of Americans think that the situation is a crisis, against 24% in January. While this figure included a modest increase among Republicans and independents, the percentage of Democrats who agreed fell from 7% to 24%, nearly a quarter of the population.

In the general population, an even larger majority of 45% say that illegal immigration through the southern border is a serious problem, but not a crisis, while 18% believe that it is not a serious problem .

Changing views have changed the political calculation of the Democrats, including the 20 candidates already running for the party's presidential nomination, who tried to challenge Trump's radical immigration discourse. After already accusing the president of falsely fanning the public's fears of a non-existent crisis, Democrats have focused on the humanitarian challenges at the border, while accusing Trump of demonizing immigrants and prosecuting them. policies that have exacerbated the problems.

Trump's policy "was an absolute failure for our country," said Julián Castro, former mayor of San Antonio, campaigning for the 2020 Democratic nomination, at a rally organized this month. in this city. He released an immigration plan that would decriminalize unauthorized border crossings.

But Trump countered the problem by trying to blame the Democrats for their opposition to radical policies which, he says, would send a message of deterrence to the record number of Central American families seeking asylum in the United States. In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Trump said he had reversed his government's "zero tolerance" policy of separating immigrant families last summer in a reactionary context. negative policy – to find that the number of families had increased six-fold since, according to federal data.

"The problem is that you have 10 times more people coming in with your family," Trump said in the interview, exaggerating the numbers. "It's like Disneyland now."

The Post-ABC survey reveals that 64% of Americans oppose Trump's use of an emergency statement in February to divert billions of dollars in federal funding from the federal government. other programs for the construction of a border wall – 55% declaring themselves "strongly opposed".

More women (71%) than men (57%) oppose Trump's statement and although a majority of all age groups oppose it, a greater proportion of young Americans oppose it only the older ones.

A larger proportion of non-white Americans (82%), of which 92% African-Americans, oppose this measure, while a slight majority of whites, or 54% , also oppose it.

More generally, 57% of adults disapprove of the way Trump handles immigration in general, which is similar to the 54% who disapprove of his overall professional performance. But 39 percent approve of Trump's treatment of immigration, up slightly from 35 percent in 2017. That figure includes 74 percent of Republicans, a sign that the conservative base of the president maintains it.

The poll shows a marked gap between Americans as to who is to blame for the growing number of people at the border. Thirty-five percent blame Democratic Party members, while 32 percent blame Trump, a largely party-driven split.

A majority of Democrats blame Trump (62%), while a majority of Republicans blame Congress Democrats (71%). The independents are divided about equally.

The intensity of feelings generated by Trump's immigration program could be a handicap for the president for his 2020 campaign. A majority of 42% of registered voters say Trump's treatment of illegal immigration makes them more likely to oppose his reelection. 34% say it makes them more supportive, while 22% say the issue is not a factor in their vote.

The president, who put the fight against illegal immigration at the center of his 2016 campaign, continued to view the issue as essential to his chances of being re-elected, and he played before his conservative base, even as the White House feared that the increasing level of crossings at the crossings threaten to undermine its message that its administration has been effective.

"I'm proud to tell you that it was my unhealthy idea," Trump told the crowd, referring to the plan. The idea was rejected in November and again in February by ICE, whose lawyers found it inappropriate. La Poste first revealed the existence of the plan in a report published three weeks ago.

Americans are roughly equally divided between how the country should handle asylum protection for migrants – a top priority of the White House Trump, which has attempted to implement policies, blocked by federal courts, which would ban candidates from Central America.

Trump's aides claimed that the asylum system makes it too difficult for the expulsion of migrants from Central America, especially families and children, who are generally released in the United States while waiting for immigration court hearings, which may take more than a year despite huge backlogs.

The poll reveals that US asylum protection laws diverge almost in all three laws: 30% believe it should be more difficult for undocumented immigrants to seek asylum, 27 % say it should be easier and 34% believe that asylum protection should be left as it is. now.

A majority of 46% of Republicans believe that asylum should be more difficult to claim, while Democrats are divided between maintaining the current situation (40%) and simplification (38%).

The post-CBA survey was conducted in a random national sample of 1,001 adults, 65% of whom were on cell phones and 35% on landlines. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for the full sample.

Scott Clement contributed to this report.