A NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday shows that a plurality of Americans do not support President Obama’s plan to take unilateral executive actions on illegal immigration. But more surprisingly, even Latinos — the community that is supposedly the chief benefactor of such an action — are divided on executive amnesty. (RELATED: Polls Show Hostility Toward Obama’s Work Permits For Illegals)
According to the poll, 43 percent of Latinos support the president’s plan, but 37 percent are opposed. By contrast, 48 percent of all Americans oppose executive amnesty, while 38 percent support the action. Fourteen percent say they don’t know or aren’t sure.
When it came to the Latino response, NBC took the unusual step of casting doubt on its own poll. “The sample size here is small (just 110 Latino respondents),” they note, “so the numbers have a high margin of error.” The Wall Street Journal’s report did not include a similar disclaimer.
Some have called the poll’s wording biased. Townhall’s Conn Carroll points out that the question’s first sentence told respondents that “executive orders are actions taken by a president that can put some regulations into effect that do not require Congressional approval.”
Carroll charges that section “completely primes the respondent into thinking Obama’s executive action is perfectly normal,” not illegal and unprecedented as Republicans claim.