WASHINGTON — Latinos by a 2-to-1 margin disapprove of how President Barack Obama is handing deportations of illegal residents, but by an even larger margin, Latino voters favor him over Mitt Romney, according to a new survey by the Pew Hispanic Center.
The Obama administration has presided over a record number of deportations of illegal residents, a policy that has drawn extensive criticism from Latino leaders. By 59 percent to 27 percent, Latinos — citizens and noncitizens — say they disapprove of how the administration is handling the issue.
Obama’s overall approval rating among Latinos in the survey was 49 percent — a figure consistent with findings of other recent surveys and a sharp decline from his standing earlier in his administration.
So far, however, that disapproval does not appear to have spilled over to how Latinos expect to vote. Among the registered voters in the survey, Obama led Romney in a hypothetical matchup by 68 percent to 23 percent — about the same margin by which Obama defeated John McCain among Latino voters in 2008, according to exit polls.
Republicans have been hoping that disapproval of Obama’s policies would erode support for the president among Latinos, whose backing he cannot afford to lose.
But some Republican strategists have worried that their hope for converting Latino voters would be blocked by the strong anti-illegal-immigrant positions that Romney and other GOP hopefuls have taken during the primary campaign.
The poll indicates those fears are well-grounded. Asked which of the two parties has more concern for them, only 12 percent of Latinos surveyed cited the GOP, while 45 percent said Democrats.
The poll also indicated that many Latinos do not know that deportations have risen under Obama’s watch.
The Nov. 9 to Dec. 7 poll of 1,220 adults of Latino origin or descent was conducted in English and Spanish using landlines and cellphones. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
