(NewsNation) —For the third straight month, Americans say immigration is the top problem facing the U.S., the longest stretch for this particular issue in the past 24 years, a recent Gallup poll showed.
27% of Americans said immigration is the biggest crisis facing the nation, according to poll results taken in April.
Though the issue has not ranked as the top problem often in Gallup’s monthly trend, it does stand as the most “politically polarizing issue in the past 25 years of Gallup’s measurement,” the group stated.
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And the division is stark.
The survey showed that 48% of Republicans, compared with 8% of Democrats, mention immigration and independents come in at 25%.
The numbers come amid increasing attention to the border crisis and migrant surge.
The U.S. Border Patrol had nearly 250,000 encounters with migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico in December 2023, according to government statistics. That was the highest monthly total on record, which has surpassed 224,000 encounters in May 2022.
Concerns about government and the economy in general also came in as top concerns after immigration, according to the Gallup poll.
In addition to these recent instances, immigration has topped Gallup’s most important problem list four times since 2000, including in 2014, 2018 and 2019.
This year is the first time that immigration has remained the top issue for multiple successive months.