The US economy needs immigrants. A rising share of both Democrats and Republicans don't want them.

• More immigration could help the US solve the ongoing labor shortage.
• But a growing share of both Democrats and Republicans wants less immigration.

More immigrants could be the answer to the US' ongoing labor shortage. But a rising share of both Democrats and Republicans want the country to reduce immigration.

That's according to a new Gallup survey conducted in January of over 1,000 US adults, which asked respondents whether they were satisfied with America's current immigration levels.

The polling found that 71% of Republicans were dissatisfied with the amount of immigration and wanted less of it moving forward, an uptick from 69% in 2022 and 40% in 2021. 19% of Democrats said the same, an increase from 11% in 2022 and a mere 2% in 2021.

The survey's findings come as the US continues to face a labor shortage. There were over 11 million job openings as of December, nearly double the number of unemployed Americans. The shortage is not only among the factors keeping inflation elevated today, but it could hold back the US economy moving forward if the population ages and birth rates continue to fall.

Immigration could be one way to fill the gap in workers. It's the reason some experts were encouraged when a December Census Bureau report found that net international migration — the number of people who entered the US vs. left it — rose to over one million in 2022. This marked the highest level since 2017, and was up from a decade-low 376,000 in 2021 — which was driven by pandemic factors and a carryover of Trump administration policies restricting immigration.

"If we increased the number of people who were allowed to immigrate into the United States based on the skills they bring to the marketplace, we could fix this huge excess demand for labor problem pretty quickly," David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, previously told Insider.

The crisis at the southern border could be fueling anti-immigration sentiment

Gallup's survey did not ask respondents why they answered the way they did. Its accompanying report, however, speculated that the rise in anti-immigration sentiment was tied to the surge of migrants at the US-Mexico border in recent years.

"The recent shift in US attitudes no doubt reflects the situation at the southern border," the report said.

After plummeting during 2020 due to the pandemic, the US Border Patrol reported a record-high nearly 1.7 million encounters with migrants at the US-Mexico border in 2021. Last year, a new record was set with over 2 million encounters. And if Title 42 — a controversial pandemic-era policy that has allowed the US to turn away asylum seekers — is lifted, the Department of Homeland Security has estimated the number of encounters would rise further.

Encounters include both "apprehensions," when migrants are taken into custody, and "expulsions," when migrants are immediately sent away from the border.

"Failing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are driving a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, including the recent increase in encounters at the southwest US border," former US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a statement last September.

In April 2020, for instance, there were only 161 encounters with Cuban migrants. In November 2022, there were over 34,000, fueled in part by difficult economic conditions that were worsened by the impacts of Hurricane Ian last fall.

But in the near-term at least, the tide could be changing.

Following CBP Commissioner Magnus's resignation in November, and the record monthly high for encounters in December, the number of migrant encounters fell to under 130,000 in January, the lowest level in two years.

"The January monthly operational update clearly illustrates that new border enforcement measures are working," acting CBP commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement.

The first week of January, the Biden administration announced a series of new immigration policies, which included expanding the use of Title 42 to turn away migrants from the border and expanding the ways migrants can apply for asylum.

The new program will allow 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the US and work legally for up to two years. To be approved, however, these migrants must apply from their home countries, pass a background check, and prove they have a financial sponsor in the US. Over 11,000 people from these countries were admitted through this program in January.

In conjunction with this, the administration said it would expel as many as 30,000 migrants per month from the same four countries to Mexico — which has agreed to receive them — if they attempt to enter the US illegally.

Critics have argued the new policies are infringing upon migrants' legal right to claim asylum and have called on the Biden administration to end Title 42.

"Last year President Biden promised to end Title 42," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in January. "Instead, he is now expanding restrictions on asylum seekers. This administration is making it effectively impossible to seek refuge at our border. President Biden should listen to the courts and human rights advocates and reverse course."

With both migrant movements and US immigration policy in flux, it remains to be seen whether the growing share of Democrats and Republicans will get the immigration decline they desire in the years to come.