A new CNN poll has found that a third of Americans believe diversity is a threat to the nation's culture, a number that's tripled since 2019.
In a similar poll conducted five years ago, 11% of respondents said diversity was "threatening," compared to 33% who say the same today. Two-thirds of Americans said diversity enriches American culture, which is down from 82% in 2019. Specifically, survey takers were asked: "Overall, do you think having an increasing number of people of many different races, ethnic groups, and nationalities in the U.S. is mostly (threatening) or mostly (enriching) American culture?"
The survey results come amid a volatile political environment in which Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, have taken an increasingly nativist and anti-immigration stance in the final weeks of their campaign.
“They’re coming from the Congo. They’re coming from Africa. They’re coming from the Middle East. They’re coming from all over the world- Asia,” Trump said at a rally on Long Island last week. “What’s happening to our country is we’re just destroying the fabric of life in our country. We’re not going to take it any longer. You got to get rid of these people. Give me a shot."
Immigration has been a key issue for both presidential candidates. Some 77% of Americans believe the U.S.-Mexico border is experiencing an ongoing crisis and 55% wish to see less immigration overall, according to a recent Gallup poll. That comes despite the number of people crossing the border having plunged "significantly" in recent months.
Though Trump has taken a more extreme stance on immigration, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris too has promised a crackdown on unauthorized border crossings. She has said she wants to revive a congressional border bill, also backed by President Joe Biden, that would increase executive authority to shut border access, as well as provide resources to hire more immigration judges and Border Patrol agents. The bill failed to get through the Senate in June after Trump announced his opposition, at the time urging Republicans not to hand Democrats a political win.
"We know our immigration system is broken and we know what it takes to fix it: comprehensive reform. That includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship,” Harris said at an Arizona rally in August.
In the new CNN survey, 49% of respondents said they trust Trump over Harris to do a better job on immigration, compared to 35% who said the same of Harris.
With just over a month left until November’s election, the race for president is extremely close. Harris currently leads Trump 48-47, according to a separate CNN poll released Tuesday.
