Poll: Half of America Opposes Executive Action



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WSJ/NBC Poll: Half of America Opposes Executive Action

Wednesday, 19 Nov 2014 09:16 PM
By Cathy Burke

Nearly half of Americans disapprove of President Barack Obama’s taking executive action to shield undocumented immigrants from deportation, a new poll finds.

According to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday, 48 percent oppose executive action on immigration and 38 percent support it; another 14 percent have no opinion or are unsure.

The survey also finds 57 percent of Americans support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants — and 74 percent favor a pathway that requires paying fines and back taxes, as well as passing a security background check.

The Senate in June 2013 passed legislation creating a pathway for undocumented immigrants, plus bolstering security of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The GOP-controlled House declined to take up the legislation or pass its own bill. Obama subsequently declared he'd use executive authority to address the issue. His expected plan is to be released Thursday.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The survey also found that in the wake of the midterm elections — and voters handing Republicans control of both the Senate and House — Americans remain pessimistic.

The poll finds two-thirds of the respondents say the country is on the wrong track, that Obama's approval is at a dismal 44 percent and that 56 percent to 33 percent of voters want Congress, versus the president, to take the lead in setting policy for the country.

"While this wave election has changed the composition of Congress and added Republican governors, it has not changed the nation’s psyche or their expectations," Democratic pollster Fred Yang of Hart Research, who conducted this survey with the Republican pollsters at Public Opinion Strategies, told NBC News.

"It is almost like the election never happened."

According to the poll, 76 percent of voters think there will be "just some change" or "not that much change" as a result of the midterms.

Twenty-one percent say it will result in "a great deal of change" or "quite a bit of change." Also, 32 percent of respondents say they have less confidence that politicians will start working together, compared with the 26 percent who have more confidence.

Forty percent said the election made no difference.

But by a 63 percent-to-30 percent margin, respondents want their elected candidates to compromise instead of sticking to their campaign positions, the poll found.

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