The poll finds that 35 percent of voters approved of how Obama delt with immigration. Poll: GOP has edge on immigration

Nearly two-thirds of likely voters in battleground races this fall disapprove of President Barack Obama’s handling of immigration, according to a new POLITICO poll — a public rebuke that comes after the White House grappled with the border crisis and reversed on a pledge to take executive action on deportations by the end of the summer.

The poll found that 35 percent of voters in the most competitive House and Senate races this fall said they approved of how Obama has dealt with immigration, compared with 64 percent who said they disapproved of the president’s handling of the issue. And by a narrow margin, more voters said they trust the GOP over Democrats on immigration.


The politics of immigration have been upended by the surge of unaccompanied migrant children at the Texas border this summer — a crisis that attracted nationwide attention and focused the immigration debate on the issue of border security.

Republicans jumped on the border crisis to paint Obama and Democrats as too lenient on immigration, pointing to the president’s 2012 directive that stopped deporting hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children as the main cause for the influx.

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The White House also on Sept. 6 announced that it will postpone any executive action on immigration until the end of the year. The decision came amid pressure from Senate Democrats running in competitive reelection bids who feared the controversial move could be used against them in their campaigns.

Now, 34 percent of voters in the most competitive House and Senate races say they trust the Republican Party more on immigration than Democrats, who had the backing of 31 percent of those surveyed. Thirty-five percent said they weren’t sure which party they trusted more on the issue.

Among voters who identified themselves as independents, 26 percent said they trusted Republicans more than Democrats on immigration, while 18 percent said the reverse. And 48 percent of Latino voters said they trusted the Democratic Party more vs. 27 percent of Hispanic voters who said the GOP is more trustworthy on the issue.

On the issue of unaccompanied minors, nearly half — or 49 percent — of voters said the migrant children should be deported after they have had appropriate judicial hearings. Just 29 percent said the children should be allowed to stay in the United States after going through the legal channels, and 20 percent said they didn’t know.

( Also on POLITICO: Dems push for immigration delay)

Still, the POLITICO poll found robust support for comprehensive immigration reform. Two-thirds of those surveyed said they support an immigration overhaul, while 33 percent said they were opposed.

Comprehensive immigration reform is a key issue for voters, according to the poll. Three out of four voters said reform was either very or somewhat important in choosing which candidate they will support, while 25 percent said it was either not very or not at all important.

Three in 10 members of the president’s party said they disapprove of his performance on the issue, while 70 percent of white voters and just shy of half of Latinos felt that way.

Voters in the battleground races were split on a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States: 51 percent are in favor and 49 percent opposed, according to the poll.

The Democratic-led Senate passed a sweeping immigration overhaul measure, which included a pathway to citizenship, in June 2013. All Democrats voted in favor of the bill, written by a bipartisan group of eight senators, as well as 14 Republicans.

The Republican-led House did not bring immigration reform legislation to the floor and largely backed off the issue after releasing a set of principles on the issue in January.

The POLITICO poll was designed by SocialSphere Inc. and conducted by the research firm GfK. It surveyed 917 likely voters in competitive House and Senate races from Aug. 29 to Sept. 7, and it has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percent.