Most Americans back Trump’s deportation goals but not his tactics, poll finds

WASHINGTON – Most Americans share President Donald Trump’s view that immigrants living illegally in the US should be deported, but generally disapprove of his hardline tactics, including masked agents in tactical gear who have clashed with US citizens, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

The six-day poll, which concluded on Feb 23, illustrates both the broad appeal of Mr Trump's focus on immigration enforcement and the widespread disapproval of his tactics that could weigh on his Republican Party in the Nov 3 congressional midterm elections.

Some 61 per cent of respondents – including 92 per cent of Republicans and 35 per cent of Democrats – said they “support deporting unauthorised immigrants”. Mr Trump’s stand on the issue helped him win the 2024 presidential election as he accused Democratic politicians of favouring “open borders”.

Sixty-three per cent of Democrats said they do not support deporting unauthorised immigrants, compared with 7 per cent of Republicans.

During the Feb 24 State of the Union address, Mr Trump tried to reclaim the narrative on immigration, which had been among his greatest political strengths before a wave of street clashes involving ICE agents. These have included separation of families and fatal shootings of two US citizens. Mr Trump on Feb 24 said his focus was on criminals, noting: “We’re getting them the hell out of here fast.”

ICE gone too far, survey finds

Some 60 per cent of Americans – including a fifth of Republicans and nine in 10 Democrats – think immigration agents have gone too far, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

Among people who do not identify with either party, 65 per cent think the authorities have gone too far. These independent voters could be a critical swing group in November when Republicans will try to maintain their thin majorities in the US House of Representatives and US Senate.

Disapproval of Mr Trump’s tactics is particularly high among Black and Hispanic Americans, two slices of the electorate that Mr Trump made progress with in the 2024 election.

Seventy-four per cent of Black respondents and 72 per cent of Hispanics said they did not like how the administration was handling deportations, compared with 51 per cent of white respondents.

Since February 2025, Mr Trump’s overall approval rating among Hispanic Americans has dropped by 7 percentage points to 29 per cent in the latest survey. Among Black Americans, it has ticked 2 percentage points lower to 14 per cent. Among white Americans, it is down 4 points to 49 per cent.

Significant internal divisions have opened in both political parties over immigration enforcement. Among Republicans who support deportations, 23 per cent said they were uncomfortable with the current tactics employed by immigration officers.

Democrats, besides being divided on whether unauthorised immigrants should be deported at all, also disagree on whether to disband the Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch of the Department of Homeland Security, known as ICE, a central enforcement body.

Rising democratic opposition

Some 63 per cent of Democrats said ICE should be abolished, while 30 per cent disagreed. The share in favour was a significant increase from a 2018 Reuters/Ipsos survey that showed 44 per cent of Democrats supporting the idea. The latest survey showed only a third of independents back getting rid of ICE, little changed from 2018.

Only a handful of Democratic congressional candidates in 2026 have called for abolishing the agency, with centrist organisations such as Third Way warning that embracing the idea could hurt Democrats at the polls in November.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos survey, which was conducted online, gathered responses from 4,638 US adults nationwide and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points. REUTERS