Poll: Voters oppose bill combining DACA protections with border wall

Roughly half of polled voters oppose Congress passing a bill that combines protections for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, known as “Dreamers,” with funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a poll released Thursday found.

A Quinnipiac University poll shows 49 percent of respondents oppose tying funding for President Trump’s border wall to addressing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, compared to 39 percent who support such a measure.

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Hispanic voters are split evenly on the issue, with 42 percent opposing it and 42 percent supporting it, according to the poll.

In total, 73 percent of voters support allowing Dreamers to remain in the U.S. legally, according to the poll.

The Trump administration announced last year it would rescind DACA, which allows certain immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to remain here and work without fear of deportation.

As lawmakers work to agree on an immigration bill, Trump has indicated any measure that addresses DACA must also adequately fund his border wall.

White House chief of staff John Kelly said Wednesday the wall won’t stretch across the entire border, and indicated the Mexican government won’t pay for it, as Trump has previously claimed. Kelly also told lawmakers Trump’s initial views on immigration were “uninformed.”

Kelly’s comments reportedly irked the president, who on Thursday morning reiterated that his concept for the wall “has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it.”

The poll surveyed 1,212 American voters between Jan. 12-16 and has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.