NEW YORK, November 25 (Sputnik) – Latino voters overwhelmingly support US President Barack Obama's decision to remove the threat of deportation from millions of undocumented immigrants, Matt Barreto, co-founder of the polling group Latino Decisions, has said.
A poll of 405 Latino voters that was carried out from November 20 to 22 found that 89 percent of those surveyed either "strongly supported" (68 percent) or "somewhat supported" (21 percent) Obama's recent executive action on immigration.
"It is fair to say that this 89 percent support that we have found is the highest and the most unified we have ever found Latino public opinion and this is a strong testament to the connections in our community," Barreto said during a telephone media briefing on Monday.
"Immigration is an important issue to Latinos. Overwhelmingly, Latinos support Obama's executive action on immigration to provide relief to undocumented parents. Latino voters also oppose efforts to block or get in the way of this executive action," he said.
Earlier this month, Obama announced plans for an executive order that would help to grant legal status to as many as five million undocumented immigrants, living in the United States and secure the country's border.
During his speech, Obama said he needed to use executive powers on immigration because Congress has failed to act.
Leading Republicans have criticized Obama's executive plan on immigration reform. But despite their outrage, the president says he remains willing to work with Congress to pass bipartisan legislation on immigration reform.
