Gallup: Two in Three Americans Disapprove of Obama on Immigration

Nearly two in three Americans disapprove of the way President Barack Obama is dealing with immigration as he pushes for amnesty while illegal immigrant children are flooding across the border. 

A Gallup poll found that 65% of Americans disapprove of Obama on immigration, which is up four points from a CNN poll earlier in the month that found 61% of Americans disapproved.

According to the Gallup poll, “Americans’ approval of President Barack Obama’s handling of immigration has dropped to 31%, one of the lowest readings since 2010,” and the poll found Obama’s 65% disapproval rating has climbed “10 points since August 2013,” which nearly a month after the Senate passed its comprehensive amnesty bill.  

Gallup cited Obama’s threats to unilaterally ease deportations as one of the factors contributing to his low approval rating that “has dropped since last August across all political affiliations, even among” Democrats. The poll found that “Democrats’ approval has fallen eight points to the current 60%” and “approval among independents has also fallen eight points, to 25%.” Meanwhile, only 8% of Republicans approve of Obama’s handling of the immigration issue. 

Gallup also concluded, consistent with post-election polling, that “House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s recent primary loss was widely viewed as a defeat rooted in Cantor’s perceived stance on immigration.” It also highlighted how the media has “enlarged its spotlight on the increasing numbers of unaccompanied Central American children who have crossed the U.S. border,” which has made Americans more aware of the border crisis. The media started to cover the issue more seriously after Breitbart Texas released photos of illegal immigrant children being warehoused. 

Obama has been scrambling to deal with the border crisis, even telling Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Thursday that illegal immigrant children crossing the border are not eligible for amnesty. His words and actions have led illegal immigrants to believe otherwise.

The poll was conducted June 5-8, and its margin of error is +/- four percentage points.