Trump in trouble on immigration, as signature issue turns deadly

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown across the US is the signature issue of his second term, but deadly violence in Minneapolis risks making it a liability for a leader who already looks vulnerable in the polls.

Outrage over the

death of nurse Alex Pretti

– the second US citizen killed by federal agents in January while protesting militarised immigration raids in the city – has forced Mr Trump onto the defensive.

The raids were a cornerstone of the US leader’s election pledges, but they are making even some of his core voters uncomfortable a year after his return to power.

Combined with multiple polls showing declining approval for the 79-year-old, alarm bells now appear to be ringing ahead of the crucial US midterm elections in November.

Professor Garret Martin, who teaches international relations at American University, said: “There is support for the idea of tougher immigration, but there is

real pushback

on the means and the methods being used, the heavy-handedness, the violence.”

Recent polls show that even when voters approve of Mr Trump’s deportations and hardline stance on immigration, they oppose the often brutal methods of his Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

A Siena/New York Times poll found the number of those who think ICE tactics have “gone too far” has ticked up over the past year to 61 per cent.

The poll was carried out before Mr Pretti’s killing, but after

Ms Renee Good

, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot dead by an ICE agent in Minnesota on Jan 7.

A YouGov poll carried out hours after Mr Pretti’s shooting, a majority of 46 per cent – 34 per cent strongly and 12 per cent somewhat – supported “abolishing ICE”.

“It’s a problem for the President because it means that the focus of the conversation is much more now on ICE and the scrutiny on how ICE is acting, as opposed to the issue of immigration, which Trump would like to put forward,” Prof Martin said.

‘Rock and a hard place’

Worse for Mr Trump is that allies have soured on the crackdown.

Influential podcaster Joe Rogan earlier in January compared ICE raids with the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, while the normally loyal Texas Governor Greg Abbott has urged Mr Trump to “recalibrate” his approach in Minnesota.

Mr Trump

scrambled to pivot on Jan 26

, taking a more conciliatory tone with local Democrat leaders and dispatching his border chief to the state.

But the episode has further pierced the aura of invincibility that the US leader has sought to project since returning to power a year ago.

Polls show that Mr Trump is on the back foot on a series of issues, most notably the economy, which he had boasted he would return to a new “golden age”.

A series of polls also show that he is losing support among the groups that helped him get re-elected in 2024, including Hispanic, black and young voters.

A Pew Research Center survey showed that 61 per cent of Hispanic voters are dissatisfied with his economic policies and that 65 per cent reject his anti-immigration policies.

Mr Trump has responded in typical fashion to such polls, saying last week that he would

sue the New York Times

over the Siena survey and suggesting that what he called “fake” surveys should be criminalised.

But that is unlikely to ease concerns among Republicans about the midterm elections on Nov 3.

Minnesota Republican Chris Madel, a defence attorney for Ms Good’s shooter, dropped out of the race for governor on Jan 26, saying that “national Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota”.

Traditionally an opportunity for voters to give incumbent presidents a hammering, Mr Trump’s party is at risk of losing control of one or both chambers of Congress, although the leaderless Democrats also have dismal ratings.

But despite Mr Trump’s poll numbers, Republican lawmakers still have to contend with a deeply loyal “Make America Great Again” base in an election that the US leader wants to make about himself.

Prof Martin said: “They’re caught between a rock and a hard place.” AFP