More than half of U.S. Latinos say they disapprove of the way the Obama administration has handled deportations of undocumented immigrants in the last couple of years. Last year, the federal government deported a record 393,000 people.
According to the report, "As Deportations Rise to Record Levels, Most Latinos Oppose Obama's Policy," Latinos are nearly twice as likely as the general public to prefer immigration reform and a path to legalization, over just increasing border security.
For these reasons, President Obama suffered a decline in his approval rating among Latinos. But the latest Pew survey finds that despite this, Latinos' support for the Democratic Party remains strong.
The Pew Hispanic Center's Mark Lopez co-wrote the report based on surveys of more than 1,200 Latinos.
"The President's job approval rating over the last year has declined by 9 percentage points among Latino registered voters," said Lopez. "In fact, the interesting thing is, the gap between Latinos and the general public in terms of approval ratings of Barack Obama has actually diminished a lot over the course of the last year."
In other words, Latino public opinion most closely resembles the general public's at this point. Jobs, education, and health care remain at the top of everyone's list.
