Poll: Voters disapprove of Obama's handling of illegal immigration
By CIndy Carcamo
The Orange County Register, September 16, 2010
http://www.ocregister.com/news/illegal-266743-percent-poll.html
Most U.S. voters disapprove of President Barack Obama's handling of illegal immigration, according to a recent national poll by Quinnipiac University.
The poll showed that 60 percent of respondents disapproved of his handling of illegal immigration, while 25 percent approved and the rest didn't know.
The poll was conducted by the Connecticut university during the first week of September, with 1,905 registered voters as respondents. The poll was released earlier this week.
Those who described themselves as Republicans had a higher disapproval rating — of 88 percent of Obama's tackling of illegal immigration. Of Independents, 66 disapproved. The disapproval rating was the lowest among Democrats — at about 54 percent.
Overall, the respondents had a strong anti-illegal immigration sentiment, according to the poll.
For instance, 68 percent favored a stricter enforcement of laws against illegal immigration instead of integrating them into American society. About 24 percent approved of an integration approach.
Click here to read more about immigration.
The same poll also shows that Americans are just about split on whether to continue to grant U.S. citizenship to the children of people who are in the country illegally.
Respondents were asked the following:
'As you may know, under our constitution and current laws, all children born in the United States are automatically granted citizenship. Do you think we should continue to grant citizenship to all children born in the U.S. or do you think this should be changed so children of illegal immigrants are not automatically granted citizenship?
About 48 percent of respondents said there should be a stop to the practice of granting citizenship to U.S.-born children of people who are in the country illegally. About 45 percent said the practice should continue and the rest didn't know.
It's not definitive as to whether most want to end the practice or continue it because the numbers are so close and the margin of error for the study is 2.3 percentage points.
'Many Americans want to end 'birthright citizenship,' an issue some Republican senators want to explore through congressional hearings,' said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in a written statement. …'But the support for ending 'birthright citizenship' is not overwhelming, and falls along predictable political lines that are consistent with how the Arizona law aimed at limiting illegal immigration is playing across the country.'
