WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 16, 2025) – A new Center for Immigration Studies report, Under Biden, Democrats Shifted on Immigration: Disastrous policies caused a seismic shift away from open borders, explores a transformation in Democratic attitudes on immigration during the Biden administration.

Drawing on over two decades of firsthand experience as a Republican counsel to the House Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee, George Fishman, a CIS senior legal fellow, analyzes polling data that has tracked Democrats’ views on specific immigration policy-related questions over years or even decades, showing them in many cases reversing course under Biden after years of embracing progressively more open-borders immigration policies.

“During Biden’s presidency, the data reveal that Democrats began to see open-borders immigration policies as a national concern again — a shift that would’ve been unthinkable just a few years earlier,” said Fishman. “The Biden administration created border crisis forced Democrats – both moderate and liberal – to reevaluate long-held positions. This gives me hope that in the future, bipartisan cooperation on immigration legislation in the national interest will again be possible, as it was in 1996 with the support of President Clinton and many congressional Democrats.”

The report traces Democratic opinion from the 1990s to the Trump era, highlighting a march towards an open-borders philosophy – only to pivot in the Biden years, with many voters now prioritizing border security and voicing discontent with high levels of illegal immigration.

The report also examines how Democratic Party officials and lawmakers, like Rep. Richie Torres (D-N.Y.), responded post-2024 election, acknowledging that “we swung the pendulum too far to the left" on immigration.