Poll: GOP base open to softer immigration policy
WASHINGTON—Amajority of Republicans can see themselves voting for someone who would protect millions of immigrants from deportation, according to a new poll.
The AP-GfK poll finds that Republicans want a candidate to reverse President Barack Obama’s unilateral action to postpone deportations. But most could see themselves voting for someone who would keep that policy in place.
The poll was conducted before Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton’s effort this week to magnify the difference between letting people who are in the country illegally have legal status, which some Republicans support, and letting them gain citizenship, which she supports.
“I don’t just have a problem with immigration, as long as they are here, working and following the rules,” said Dean Talmadge, a Re- publican from suburban Seattle.
That ’s a sentiment shared by most Americans, who, according to the poll, favor a path to citizenship 53 to 44 percent.
Clinton also said she would expand Obama’s executive action, which shielded many young immigrants brought to the country as children, along with parents of citizens and permanent residents, from deportation.
In the poll, about 6 in 10 Americans and 4 in 10 Republicans support those measures policy.
Three-quarters of Republicans in the poll say they would prefer to vote for a 2016 candidate who would undo Obama’s immigration action. Even so, 55 percent of Republicans either prefer a candidate who would support Obama’s policy or say that they could vote for someone who does if they agreed on other issues.
The poll’s margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
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