Biden's approval rating drops to 38% as Americans worry about immigration, economy

President Joe Biden witnessed a dip in his approval rating in January, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday, as concerns over the economy and immigration took precedence among Americans. Amid the Democrat’s intensifying reelection campaign, only 38% of respondents expressed approval of Biden’s performance, down from 40% in December. Biden’s public approval rating has remained below 50% since August 2021, prompting unease among his Democratic peers, especially with an anticipated rematch against Republican former President Donald Trump in November looming. A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this month revealed Trump holding a six percentage-point lead in the prospective matchup. The recent poll highlighted a growing apprehension regarding immigration, with 17% of respondents identifying it as the most critical issue facing the US today—a significant increase from the 11% who voiced the same concern in December. Among Republican participants, immigration emerged as the top worry, with 36% highlighting it as their primary concern, surpassing the 29% who cited the economy. Biden’s administration has struggled to cope with a surge of asylum seekers on the US-Mexico border, while Republicans in Congress, egged on by Trump, have threatened to scuttle a bipartisan attempt to tackle the problem. They are pressing ahead with an effort to impeach Biden’s top border official, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas. U.S. border authorities struggled in December to process migrants as apprehensions reached nearly 11,000 in a single day, which officials said was near or at a record high. The economy remained Americans’ overall top concern, cited by 22% of poll respondents, as they have struggled with inflation and other aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly two-thirds of respondents, including 47% of Democrats, said the country was on the wrong track. The online poll of 1,019 US adults was conducted Friday through Sunday. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points for all respondents, 6.4 points for just Republicans and 6.1 points for just Democrats. With inputs from agencies