Poll: Americans Split on Sending Migrants to Blue Cities

A new The Economist/YouGov poll, conducted September 17–20, found that Americans are evenly split on the issue of Florida and Texas sending illegal immigrants to northern cities.

Republican governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have targeted wealthy, deep-blue areas like Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and Kamala Harris’s house in Washington, D.C., by flying or busing in relatively small numbers of illegal immigrants detained in their states. One of the move’s “virtues,” as NR’s editors wrote last week, “is that it forces sanctuary cities to confront the real-world consequences of encouraging illegal migration. If a few coach buses of migrants are enough to cause Democrats to declare emergencies and beg for the National Guard, how much more serious for border states are the estimated 18,000 illegal crossings per day?”

The initiative has also garnered withering criticism from top Democrats, including the mayors of cities that have been recipients of the migrants, as well as progressives in the media. Very few, if any, have actually addressed the discrepancy between their stated commitment to policies like sanctuary cities and their adverse reaction to being forced to confront the real-world consequences of such policies. As for how the issue plays politically, the most recent poll seems to suggest that it’s neither a definitive winner nor a definitive loser for either side — at least for now.