U.S. President Barack Obama's approval among Hispanics slipped down 10 percentage points above the national average since 2012, according to a Gallup survey conducted from January 2009 to August 2014.

When Obama first became president in 2009, Hispanics' approval of his job has been 13 points above the national average - a level that reflected their tendency to lean toward the Democrats.

Like Us on Facebook

From the beginning of this year until August, 49 percent of Hispanics tended to lean toward the Democratic orientation, compared to 22 percent who tended toward the Republicans. This advantage helped Obama achieve victory over Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential polls, based on exit surveys.

Throughout his term, however, Obama's approval among Hispanics went through various ups and downs. In 2011, it dropped to six points for a few months and surged up to over 20 percentage points at the end of 2012 up to the first segment of 2013.

After the 2012 election, 75 percent of Hispanics gave their thumbs-up on Obama's performance, compared with 53 percent of the rest of the Americans. This year until August, he managed to reduce that approval gap to 10 points, gaining the approval of 52 percent of Hispanics compared with 42 percent of the total population.

Despite the big drop in approval, Obama's support among Hispanics still remains superior compared with the overall national population. It is also notably higher than it was in 2010, 2011 and in early 2012, the poll said.

The high approval among Hispanics at the given times more likely reflects the efforts of Obama's campaign team to reach out to Hispanics and work on increasing turnout in key states.

While campaigning for the 2012 election, Obama promoted immigration reform to his key audience, vowing to get it done by 2013. Gallup attributed the drop in his approval among Hispanics to his failure to have the reform enacted as he had promised.

Gallup based this hypothesis on data demonstrating Hispanics' greater tendency compared with other U.S. adults to consider immigration as one of the most pressing issues of the nation. A previous Gallup study also showed that the rise and fall of Hispanics' approval of Obama's job are related to the immigration debate.

TagsHispanics, approval rating, Obama, election, Immigration Reform