--- title: Immigration Reform: Americans Split on Barack Obama Executive Actions description: A new poll shows almost a 50-50 split in American voters over whether they support Obama's recent executive action on immigration. canonical: https://time.com/3604632/immigration-executive-actions-barack-obama-poll/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-25T12:55:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:18.658Z article:section: Politics og:title: Immigration Reform: Americans Split on Barack Obama Executive Actions og:description: A new poll shows almost a 50-50 split in American voters over whether they support Obama's recent executive action on immigration. og:url: https://time.com/3604632/immigration-executive-actions-barack-obama-poll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5907bf403306a1fa/69876ad006f2c1468033272a/obama-immigration6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3100 og:image:height: 1744 og:image:alt: Obama Statement On Ferguson Grand Jury Verdict og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Immigration Reform: Americans Split on Barack Obama Executive Actions twitter:description: A new poll shows almost a 50-50 split in American voters over whether they support Obama's recent executive action on immigration. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5907bf403306a1fa/69876ad006f2c1468033272a/obama-immigration6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Americans Divided Over Obama's Immigration Moves ## Video: President Obama Unveils Immigration Plan [Watch (HLS stream): President Obama Unveils Immigration Plan](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vKh77Vpj.m3u8) (15:17)  _Published 2014-11-21. Presiden't Obama's announcement from the White House_ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 25, 2014 12:55 PM UTC  President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 24, 2014. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 24, 2014.Kristoffer Tripplaar—dpa/Corbis by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 25, 2014 12:55 PM UTC Americans are sharply split on their reaction to [President Barack Obama’s recent executive actions to protect about five million undocumented immigrants from deportation](http://time.com/3598182/immigration-reform-executive-actions-barack-obama-deportations/) and give them temporary legal status, [according to a new poll](http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2115). The Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday found that 45% of voters support the President’s immigration moves, while 48% oppose them. The poll also shows support for immigrants at its lowest level ever measured by Qunnipiac: 48% of voters say undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay with a path to citizenship, down from 57% in November of 2013\. And 35% say undocumented immigrants should be required to leave the U.S., up from 26% a year ago. “Americans look at immigration reform with ambivalence,” said assistant Quinnipiac polling Tim Malloy said. Within the Latino community the story is different: [A poll conducted by Latino Decisions](http://time.com/3602711/latinos-youth-immigration-action-polls/) and commissioned by two pro-immigration reform groups found that almost 90% of Latino voters “support” or “strongly support” Obama’s executive action. The Quinnipiac poll of 1,623 registered voters, conducted Nov. 18-23, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3604632/immigration-executive-actions-barack-obama-poll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3604632/immigration-executive-actions-barack-obama-poll/"},"headline":"Americans Divided Over Obama's Immigration Moves","datePublished":"2014-11-25T12:55:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:18.658Z","description":"An almost even split on controversial executive actions","url":"https://time.com/3604632/immigration-executive-actions-barack-obama-poll/","keywords":["Immigration"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5907bf403306a1fa/69876ad006f2c1468033272a/obama-immigration6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5907bf403306a1fa/69876ad006f2c1468033272a/obama-immigration6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama Statement On Ferguson Grand Jury Verdict","caption":"Obama Statement On Ferguson Grand Jury Verdict","creditText":"Kristoffer Tripplaar—dpa/Corbis","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3604632/immigration-executive-actions-barack-obama-poll/","name":"Americans Divided Over Obama's Immigration Moves"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Obama Unveils Immigration Plan","description":"Presiden't Obama's announcement from the White House","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/vKh77Vpj/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-11-21T01:29:26.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vKh77Vpj.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3604632/immigration-executive-actions-barack-obama-poll/","duration":"PT15M17S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3604632/immigration-executive-actions-barack-obama-poll/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```