Despite President Donald Trump’s backtracking last week, voters still harbor reservations about the president on immigration. | Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL Poll: Voters back Trump's about-face on family separations

Voters overwhelmingly support President Donald Trump’s decision to stop separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

But despite Trump’s backtracking last week, voters still harbor reservations about the president on immigration. A plurality disapproves of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, and Democrats have erased a once-significant GOP edge on the issue.


Fewer than half of voters, 44 percent, approve of the way the Trump administration is handling immigration, the poll shows. Slightly more, 48 percent, disapprove. More than four-in-five GOP voters, 81 percent, approve of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, but only 16 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of independents agree.

The poll was conducted June 22-24, after Trump signed an executive order last week reversing his administration’s policy that led to the separation of children from adults caught crossing the border illegally.

That reversal is popular: 74 percent of voters say they support Trump’s decision, while just 15 percent oppose it.

"Voters across the political spectrum approve of the Trump administration's decision to end the child separation policy," said Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult’s managing director. “Despite the vitriolic rhetoric, 76 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of Republicans, and 69 percent of independents say they support the administration's decision."

More voters, 41 percent, say they trust Democrats in Congress when it comes to immigration — more than the 37 percent who trust Republicans. More than one-in-five voters, 22 percent, have no opinion.

In recent POLITICO/Morning Consult surveys, the two parties have been neck-and-neck when it came to immigration. Last year, Republicans had the edge on this question.

The poll shows Trump’s overall approval rating at 43 percent, in line with other recent POLITICO/Morning Consult polls. A majority of voters, 54 percent, disapprove of the job Trump is doing.

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Democrats have a 7-point on the generic congressional ballot, 44 percent to 37 percent, according to the poll.

The survey was conducted prior to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision on Tuesday to uphold Trump’s order prohibiting citizens from seven countries from entering the country. Told that the State Department “outlined guidelines last year which say visa applicants from six predominantly Muslim countries must prove a close family relationship with a U.S. resident in order to enter the country,” 52 percent support those guidelines, while 29 percent oppose them.

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll surveyed 1,989 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — Toplines: https://politi.co/2twWL8H | Crosstabs: https://politi.co/2tIWaQy