Poll: Undocumented immigrants threaten American way of life

With Congress failing to agree on broad immigration reform, Obama could act alone by summer’s end and extend work permits – and relief from deportations – to millions of undocumented immigrants, according to media reports.

Despite arguments from the White House and business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that immigration benefits the economy, 63 percent of people in the online survey said immigrants place an economic burden on the country.

While the economy and Obamacare remain the key concerns of voters, immigration has become more of an issue in recent months because of intense media coverage of undocumented migrants, including tens of thousands of children, reaching the Texas border from Central America.

A separate poll from late July by the Public Religion Research Institute found that most Americans said the U.S. should give assistance to the children while authorities decide whether or not they can stay, the New York Times reported. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said the U.S. should treat the children like refugees.

In the Reuters/Ipsos poll, only 17 percent thought more legal immigrants should be allowed to come to the United States. Thirty-eight percent said the number should stay the same.

"If Obama starts using executive orders to grant citizenship or to stop deportations, I think he gives Republicans a big opening," said Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report analyst group. "It'll be about the issue at hand, immigration, but it also feeds into this Republican narrative of overreach, of sort of abusing his power."

A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll released in July shows that voters see immigration as the third most important problem facing the nation. Opposition to undocumented immigration is higher in New England than in much of the rest of the country, according to the poll. Seventy-six percent of people in the region said undocumented immigrants threaten American beliefs and customs, compared to 70 percent nationally.

Bill Roy, a retired postal work from Manchester, New Hampshire, has voted for Democrats and Republicans in the past and said immigration is a top issue for him in deciding which candidate to back. He said there was no need for either Obama or Congress to take new measures. "It doesn't matter. Enforce the laws that we have here now," he said.

Al Jazeera and wire services