With thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into the United States every week, President Barack Obama’s approval ratings for his immigration policy has plunged to its lowest level since 2010, a new poll shows.
The
Gallup survey says that only 31 percent of Americans think that the president is doing a good job on dealing with the burgeoning immigration crisis while his disapproval rating has shot up to 65 percent.
Disapproval of Obama's performance on immigration has surged 10 percentage points since August 2013 when the Senate backed a comprehensive immigration overhaul drawn up by the so-called "Gang of Eight." Immigration reform has since been held up in the House.
The poll also showed that Republicans gave Obama their highest disapproval rating ever on his immigration policy, at 90 percent. Only 8 percent of Republicans approve.
The president's approval rating, meanwhile, among Democrats and independents has each dropped 8 percentage points, to 60 percent for Democrats and 25 percent for independents.
Obama’s ratings setback comes as undocumented immigrants from Central America flood into south Texas, creating a humanitarian crisis in the Lone Star State and in neighboring Arizona, where hundreds of them have been dumped by overwhelmed immigration authorities.
The surge includes unaccompanied minors from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, who are breaching the borders while attempting to reunite with immigrant family members.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Thursday, venting his anger over the sudden influx of illegal immigrants,
Business Insider reported.
"The Obama administration’s outright refusal to enforce the law is causing chaos for those of us who live and work in border states that must deal with the surge of immigrants who are illegally arriving each day," Cruz wrote.
According to Gallup, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s shocking upset by tea party activist Dave Brat last week in the Virginia GOP primary was "widely viewed as a defeat rooted in Cantor's perceived stance" supporting immigration amnesty.
However, Gallup warned that if House Republicans "don't make a serious effort to create reform legislation, they could find themselves punished by Latino voters, who tilt Democratic in 2016."
The poll of 1,027 adults was conducted June 5-8, and has margin of error of 4 points.