Poll: Majority Want More Deportations

By a 52-36 margin, Americans say the federal government is “not aggressive enough in deporting illegal immigrants,” according to a new poll released by Rasmussen.

Only 14 percent of likely voters said they think the U.S. is deporting too aggressively, while 22 percent think the policies currently are just right. Eleven percent are undecided.

The polling data comes as President Barack Obama, under fire from liberal activists, is considering unilateral moves to further ease deportations, more so than he already has, and House Republicans are discussing legislation to address the issue with new fervor.

Last week, House GOP conference chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers said “I believe there is a path that we get a bill by August,” McMorris Rodgers said. “We’re going to have to push that this is legal status, not amnesty.” Meanwhile, Speaker John Boehner mocked amnesty opponents as crybabies who prefer not to tackle politically difficult issues. Both have walked back their statements, and Boehner apologized to Republican colleagues Monday.

Many polls over the past year plus have shown that Americans are opposed to amnesty. In January, Gallup found only 3 percent of Americans consider the issue a priority at all. A July poll last year from Rasmussen Reports showed the American support for immigration reform decreased as more facts about the Senate’s then-just-passed “Gang of Eight” immigration bill. An April 2013 Rasmussen poll found that 59 percent of Americans entirely opposed any immigration plan that didn’t secure the border. In July last year, a poll from GOP pollster John McLaughlin found that even Hispanics wanted interior immigration enforcement and full border security before any other immigration legislation was considered.

Amid signals that House GOP leadership is seeking a path to bring immigration legislation to the House floor in coming weeks, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) held a secret confab with House conservatives, at which immigration and other disappointment in leadership was discussed, according to Roll Call. Cruz unloaded last time Boehner tried to push for amnesty–via immigration “principles” he unleashed at the House GOP retreat earlier this year–saying that if Boehner proceeded it would ensure that Harry Reid and the Democrats maintained control of the U.S. Senate this year–when Republicans are widely predicted to achieve landslide victories in races across the country.