Exclusive poll: Immigration concern spikes over separated families

There's been a big jump over the last week in the percentage of Americans who say immigration is the most important issue facing the country, as they've been bombarded by the images and sounds of families being separated after trying to cross the border illegally, according to a new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll.

Why it matters: It's mostly Democrats who have shifted, and to a lesser extent independents — a sign that they're getting energized over the coverage. The survey was conducted before President Trump signed his executive order yesterday that's intended to stop the separations by detaining families together.

The big question: Whether Democrats will stay as interested as Republicans, who have consistently ranked immigration as a much higher priority than it is for Democrats and independents.

What's changed:

• Democrats' interest in immigration has jumped 10 percentage points since last week.
• Independents' interest has increased by 4 percentage points.

What hasn't changed:

• Republicans haven't increased their level of interest, but they still edge out Democrats and independents, motivated largely by an interest in stopping illegal border crossings.

Methodology: This Axios/SurveyMonkey online poll was conducted June 15-19 among 3,936 adults. Respondents were selected from the nearly 3 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. The modeled error estimate for the full sample is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States age 18 and over.