Poll: GOP would take hit in DHS shutdown

Republicans would take most of the blame for a shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security, according to a new poll.

{mosads}Fifty-three percent of Americans would blame Republicans for a shutdown, CNN/ORC pollsters found, compared to 30 percent who would blame President Obama.

The poll did not give respondents the option of blaming Congressional Democrats.

Tuesday’s poll comes just weeks before the department’s funding is set to run out.

The House has passed legislation that would fund Homeland Security while rolling back President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. Senate Democrats have repeatedly filibustered that bill, arguing for “clean” funding legislation without policy changes.

“The House has done its job under the Constitution,” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on “Fox News Sunday” this week.

“It’s time for the Senate to do their job,” he said, adding he is “certainly” prepared to let DHS funding expire.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has scheduled more votes on the funding bill for when the Senate returns to Washington next week. He says Democrats need to stop protecting executive actions that some of them had warned Obama not to take.

The president’s immigration actions, announced in November, would delay deportations for potentially millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, while allowing them to apply for work permits. A federal judge on Tuesday issued an injunction that stopped those actions from moving forward, although the White House said it will appeal.

Fifty-nine percent of Americans in the poll said they disapprove of the way the president is handling “illegal immigration,” up from 53 percent from November.

— This story was updated on Feb. 18.