The Washington Post recently released its latest ABC News-Washington Post poll evaluating the President’s popularity and the extent to which the public remained divided on Bush and key issues. 

Among the issues the poll addressed was the President’s handling of immigration.  The Post reported that 54% of Americans disapprove of the President’s handling of immigration, compared with 58% disapproval of the President’s handling of the budget deficit, 52% disapproval on the economy, and 51% disapproval on health care.  According to the poll, the American people do support the direction the President seems to be going in on immigration reform - by a nearly 2-1 margin. 

Respondents were asked "Do you think illegal immigrants who are living and working in the United States now should be offered a chance to keep their jobs and eventually apply for legal status, or do you think they should be deported back to their native country?"  Sixty-one percent said undocumented immigrants should be able to keep their jobs and apply for legal status, compared to 36% who thought they should be deported. Men, women, Whites, Blacks, older, younger, educated, and less educated adults all seem to agree that deportation is not the solution to the vexing issue of what to do with undocumented immigrants. 

The ABC News-Washington Post poll shows a more even split among Republicans, with 55% supporting undocumented immigrants being able to keep their jobs and apply for legal status and 43% supporting deportation.  Midwesterners were the most evenly split group, 50% for jobs/legal status,  and 43% for deportation. 

The poll of 1,007 adult Americans was conducted January 12-16, 2005, and was released by the Post on January 18.  It has a margin of error ± 3 percentage points for the overall sample.  The poll and Washington Post coverage is available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/polls/.