New poll reveals record-high number of Americans view this issue as 'critical threat' to US interests

More than 50% of Americans are now saying that large numbers of illegal immigrants are a "critical" threat to U.S. vital interests, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

Of those polled, 31% said large numbers of immigrants entering illegally is an "important" threat while 14% said it was not important. Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.

He can be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or on Twitter.

The country is now in the third year of a historic border crisis. The record for yearly encounters at the southern border was broken last fiscal year when more than 2.4 million migrants were encountered at the border. The monthly record for encounters was set in December when there were more than 300,000 encounters for the first time.