Things Get Worse For Republicans: Poll Finds 89% of Latinos Support Obama On Immigration

Just when you thought that things couldn’t possibly get worse for the Republican Party as it implodes over immigration, a new poll has found that 89% of Latinos support President Obama’s immigration executive actions.

According to Buzzfeed News,

The poll found that 89% of Latino voters support Obama’s decision to give temporary legal status to nearly five million undocumented immigrants. That level of support surprised Latino Decisions co-founder Matt Barreto, who noted the figure is higher than initial support of the president’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protected undocumented youth brought to the country as children from deportation and allowed them to receive work permits.

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He said 85% of independents and 76% of Latinos who identify as Republicans support Obama’s move.

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Altogether, 80% of voters and 60% of Latino Republicans don’t think the GOP should attempt to cut funding of his order.

Congressional Republicans are under an intense amount of pressure to stop President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. The problem is that Obama’s action is the most popular presidential decision among Latinos in recent memory. If Republicans try to defund the president’s executive orders or shut down the government over immigration, they will be taking a giant towards alienating Latino voters that they need in order to win presidential elections.

A move to defund Obama’s executive orders is likely to push Latino Republicans closer to the Democratic Party. There is nothing that Republicans can do in response to the president that will not come at a huge political cost. The only thing that House Republicans can do is to pass the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform bill. However, even a vote on the bill will likely trigger an earthquake within the Republican Party that will divide congressional Republicans before they take over Congress.

`President Obama has Republicans completely pinned down. In other words, Boehner and McConnell are screwed. Any move is likely to trigger a political firestorm and a crisis. Since their white male conservative base is demanding action, doing nothing has been deemed the most unacceptable option of all.

Thanks to Obama, Republicans have been placed in a no win situation that may make it impossible for them to win the White House in 2016.

Barack Obama has managed to turn defeat into victory, and put on a clinic on how to reverse momentum by attacking your opponent’s greatest weakness. Latinos are standing with the president, which means that the immigration minefield just got a lot more treacherous for the Republican Party.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association