An NBC News poll discovered that President Obama’s planned executive amnesty order is not overwhelmingly popular among Hispanics, while nearly half of all Americans oppose it.  In fact, the margin of opposition among all Americans is greater than the marhin of support among Hispanics.

The casual assumption that Spanish-speakers automatically want to open the floodgates for illegal immigrants overlooks the vast diversity among people grouped together in a census category that assumes people from Barcelona are the same as people from Tegucigalpa.  It also fails to recognize that people who came here legally, or whose ancestors did, may resent preference given to line-jumpers.

Here is what the poll says (emphasis added):

Nearly half of Americans disapprove of President Barack Obama’s expected plan to take executive action that would potentially allow millions of undocumented immigrants to stay legally in the United States, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Forty-eight percent oppose Obama taking executive action on immigration -- which could come as soon as later this week -- while 38 percent support it; another 14 percent have no opinion or are unsure.

Not surprisingly, these numbers largely break along partisan lines: 63 percent of Democrats approve of Obama taking executive action here, versus just 11 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of independents.

Latinos are divided, with 43 percent supporting the action and 37 percent opposing it. But the sample size here is small (just 110 Latino respondents), so the numbers have a high margin of error.

Note that the margin of error could go in either direction: even more Hispanics may oppose amnesty.

Hat tip: iOTW Report