White evangelical Protestants are more likely than the average American to believe the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border is a crisis and that the ongoing migrant surge will lead to more crime, according to a new analysis from Pew Research Center.
- Seventy percent of white evangelicals view the situation as a crisis, compared to 45% of all U.S. adults, a 25 percentage point gap.
- There’s also a 25-point gap between the share of white evangelicals who believe the large number of migrants seeking to enter the U.S. from Mexico will increase crime (82%) and the share of all Americans who say the same (57%).
Pew’s analysis comes days after President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump made separate visits to the southern border amid what some are calling the “immigration election.”
Even when compared to other white Christians, white evangelicals stand out, Pew found.
- Eighty-two percent of members of the faith group expect a migrant surge to correspond with a crime surge, compared to 70% of white Catholics and 69% of white non-evangelical Protestants.
There’s an even bigger gap between white evangelicals and religiously unaffiliated Americans.
- Just 41% believe the large number of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border will lead to an increase in crime and fewer (27%) say these migrants are causing a crisis for the U.S.
One factor that likely helps explain these results is political affiliation, according to Pew.
White evangelicals, as well as white Catholics and white non-evangelical Protestants, are more likely than religiously unaffiliated Americans to support Republican candidates who, in turn, are more likely than Democratic candidates to use terms like “crisis” and raise crime-related concerns when discussing immigration policy.
In general, “far more Republicans than Democrats view the situation as a crisis and say the migrant surge leads to increased crime,” Pew reported.
A Pew report from last month showed that most Democrats think of the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border as a “problem” rather than a “crisis.”
But Republicans (89%) and Democrats (73%) generally agree that the U.S. government has done a bad job dealing with the large number of migrants attempting to enter the U.S. from Mexico, Pew found.