(07/31/12) -

Americans Divided on Obama’s Illegal Immigration Revision

Most respondents agree with the way the U.S. Supreme Court dealt with the case pertaining to Arizona’s immigration legislation.

President Barack Obama’s recent decision to change the way certain illegal immigrants are dealt with has divided views in the United States, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.

In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,002 American adults, 47 per cent of respondents agree with Obama’s decision to stop deporting and begin granting work permits to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and have not broken the law. A similar proportion of Americans (45%) disagrees with the president’s course of action.

Respondents in the Northeast (50%) are more likely to agree with the President’s decision, while people in the South and West are divided. Democrats (70%) are more likely to side with Obama on this topic, while most Republicans (64%) reject his pronouncement. Independents are evenly split (46% agree; 46% disagree).

Arizona v. United States

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the legality of an immigration law that was enacted in Arizona. A majority of Americans agree with the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down three provisions of the Arizona law: making it a state crime for “unauthorized immigrants” to fail to carry registration papers and other government identification (58%), forbidding those not authorized for employment in the United States to apply, solicit or perform work (54%), and authorizing police to arrest illegal immigrants without warrant where “probable cause” exists that they committed any public offense making them removable from the country (53%).

In addition, three-in-four respondents (75%) agree with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the provision in the Arizona law that lets police check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws if “reasonable suspicion” exists that the person is in the United States illegally.

Across the county, 45 per cent of respondents believe the federal government is better suited to establish immigration directives in the United States, while 38 per cent believe state governments are better qualified.

Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)

CONTACT:

Mario Canseco, Vice President, Angus Reid Public Opinion
+877 730 3570
mario.canseco@angus-reid.com

Methodology: From July 13 to July 15, 2012, Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey among 1,002 American adults who are Springboard America panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.1%. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of the United States. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.