Henrico residents echo polls showing immigration is key issue in presidential election

Bryce Towel, 29, sees the United States as private property.

“It’s American soil, and unless you’re invited, like if someone invites you to a party, then you should be removed,” she said as she sat on a couch at the Regency shopping mall on a dreary Wednesday in early March.

She was among more than 40 people interviewed in Henrico County about their views on immigration and Washington’s handling of the southern border. Most offered words like “compassion” and “humanity” to describe what they wanted policy makers to include as they manage masses of people trying to enter the United States through Mexico.

But a few said they wanted a forceful removal of people here illegally and a stop to immigration at the border. All reflected what exit polls on Super Tuesday showed about Virginia voters, that immigration is a top issue heading into the fall presidential election.

According to Reuters, Virginians cited immigration nearly as often as the economy, when asked about important issues facing the country.

Virginia has experienced none of the major stressors seen at the border and by recipient cities of bus and plane-loads of immigrants, like New York and Chicago. But the migrant crisis has become a pivotal issue here as politicians try to win over voters.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin showed support for securing the border by sending the Virginia National Guard there last year. And on March 2, GOP presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump rallied thousands of supporters at the Greater Richmond Convention Center by lambasting both President Joe Biden and migrants trying to cross the border.

“We now have a new category of crime, you know what it’s called? It’s called migrant crime. And this category is turning out to be worse than any crime we’ve ever had in our country,” Trump said at the rally, offering no evidence to support this claim.

Both parties are trying to appeal to voters’ increasing concern about border security.

Towel represented most of the people interviewed in Henrico when she said: “I want the border to be secure. I mean, it’s a border for a reason.”

According to a February 2024 poll by the Pew Research Center, these views are consistent with 80% of Americans who said the government was doing a “bad job” securing the border.

Almost all of those interviewed in Henrico said new border legislation is needed. Tricia Barnicki, 67, said at a Chipotle in Henrico that new policies are needed.

“What I would like to see… is people not being hurt," Barnicki said. "People not being held out if they are trying to seek asylum here.”

In dueling press events at the border on Feb. 29, Biden, who visited Brownsville, Texas, skewered Republicans for failing to pass a bipartisan bill that had been championed in the Senate even by conservatives but failed because Trump instructed Republicans to reject it.

At the same time, 300 miles away, Trump visited Eagle Pass, Texas, where he likened border security to “a military operation.” He called Biden “incompetent” for failing to act.

This kind of politicking around immigration has to some replaced attempts at passing new legislation, which many in Henrico found unacceptable.

“My real, honest opinion is that the people we've elected with those positions have lost sight of what they're supposed to do – which is governing the country,” said Richard Dolly, 67, who sat at the Short Pump Town Center plaza on a cool evening in March while waiting for his wife to finish shopping.

Angela Whittaker, 37, held similar views. She was in the West Broad Street Walgreens on the Richmond-Henrico border when she called the collapse of the Senate bipartisan border security bill “so damn stupid.”

Dolly and Whittaker criticized the government's current handling of immigration. This is something Biden will have to turn around if he wants to win over Henrico voters in the November election. Having spent the majority of his 2020 campaign criticizing Trump’s anti-immigration policies, Biden is now playing catch-up.

Many interviewed in Henrico said that any new legislation to manage the border should be built on kindness rather than political brinkmanship.

Barbara Bigelow was restocking spices at Publix, humming to the soft music playing overhead, when she said: “I haven’t had to go through the trials and whatnot that they have gone through. Them coming over here, illegal or whatever, they're coming here for a better life.”

Polls suggest that fewer and fewer people nationwide share that sentiment. In a February 2024 PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll, 57% of Americans said “openness” to immigration is essential to American identity. That was down from the 66% of Americans who supported open borders in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.

These polls show that as voters become increasingly focused on immigration, their views become more nuanced and less supportive of it. This reality has forced both parties, especially Democrats, to talk tougher about border security. Biden for the first time in January said he would shut down the border if given the authority to do so from Congress.

“I agree with Biden, if it’s getting out of control, then you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” Bigelow said. “But you know, get some people a fair chance to get over here and earn [it], so to speak.”

Some interviewed in Henrico worried that the ongoing border security debate is feeding xenophobia and hurting American citizens.

Muhammad Bell, 29, while working at a Tobacco Hut in Carytown, shared his experience as an American citizen whose family is from Yemen.

“If you want to know about immigration, really. When I always go to the airport, they shake me down. I am an American citizen,” he said calmly at first. Then he screamed, “You don’t understand!”