Americans are fairly evenly divided over President Obama’s decision to go around Congress and grant legal status to up to 5 million illegal immigrants, a new poll finds, but show less sympathy for those here illegally.
The Quinnipiac University Poll found that 45 percent agreed with Obama taking executive action to change the immigration system “if Congress failed to act,” while 48 percent opposed such a move.
The Quinnipiac poll, published today, surveyed 1,623 registered voters nationwide from Nov. 18 to 23. On Nov. 20, the midpoint of the polling, Obama announced he will give millions of illegal immigrants a reprieve from deportation and a chance to get work permits.
“While President Barack Obama’s popularity wallows, support for immigrants wanes as Americans look at immigration reform with ambivalence,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, in a statement.
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Support for allowing immigrants here illegally to stay is at the lowest ever measured by the Quinnipiac poll. A total of 48 percent said illegal immigrants should stay, compared to 57 percent who said the same in 2013.
The percentage of Americans saying illegal immigrants should be required to leave the country also is at a record high for a Quinnipiac poll — 35 percent, up from 26 percent last year.
The poll found that nearly three-quarters of Democrats support Obama’s immigration moves, while a slightly bigger percentage of Republicans, 75 percent, oppose them.
Republicans surveyed were split on a partial shutdown of government as a way to stop Obama’s executive action, with 44 percent for it and 47 percent opposed.
The president’s approval rating is near an all-time low in the poll, at 39 percent. It dropped to 38 percent last December.
The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.