Support for Donald Trump’s immigration efforts has dropped dramatically following a wave of public revulsion over violent scenes in Minneapolis involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, new poll figures show.
The figures arrive as administration officials continue to double down on ICE enforcement, which has been getting increasingly dangerous.
Nearly half (49%) of all American adults strongly disapprove of the Trump administration’s handling of border security and immigration, according to an NBC survey.
The figures represent a double-digit decline in backing for the president’s performance on immigration – the subject central to Trump’s electoral appeal – compared with a similar poll last summer, when 38% said they strongly disapproved. An earlier poll last April showed 34% disapproving.
Pollsters link the rising disapproval rates to the shooting deaths of two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in separate incidents by federal agents deployed in Minneapolis. Senior administration officials, including the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, denounced both Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists” in the immediate aftermath of their deaths.
About 60% of those asked in the week following the death of Pretti, an intensive care nurse at a VA hospital, said they disapproved of Trump’s immigration and border policies.
The decline in Trump’s support on a key issue matches his diminishing approval ratings overall; a range of recent polls, including NBC’s, showed Trump’s support also at 39%.
The NBC poll, which included nearly 22,000 adults, suggested that the deaths of Good and Pretti had a disproportionate effect on perceptions compared with previous controversies involving immigration agents in other cities.
“Those things hadn’t moved the needle that much,” Marc Trussler, NBC’s elections analyst said of the poll. “It is really the chaos of Minnesota that has done it.”
The survey also showed an underlying hostility towards ICE, with nearly three-quarters of respondents saying they wanted to see the agency reformed or abolished. A vast majority said immigration officers had gone too far. About 63% expressed opposition to agents wearing masks, with 58% disagreeing with the proposition that regular, “law-abiding citizens” had nothing to fear from immigration agents.
More people blamed violent street clashes on the administration rather than protesters, while 63% said the federal government had acted excessively in ignoring or overriding local or state governments.
A similar majority, 62%, say they do not trust the federal government to carry out fair investigations into the deaths of Good and Pretti, after local investigators were excluded from the inquiries.
The poll also showed a growing split between traditional Republicans and Trump’s allies on immigration. For instance, 59% of traditionalists supported an investigation of the agents who killed Pretti, while only 38% of Trump-supporting Republicans did.
The findings have come as officials have continued to voice an uncompromising line on ICE’s agents, with several leading figures, including JD Vance, asserting that agents have “absolute immunity” in their operations.
Testifying before the House of Representatives homeland security committee on Tuesday, the agency acting head, Todd Lyons, was unapologetic about its actions.
“Let me send a message to anyone who thinks they can intimidate us. You will fail,” he told lawmakers. “We are only getting started.”
Lyons expressed resentment about the agency’s conduct being compared to the Nazi Gestapo, saying such rhetoric put agents at risk. In response, Dan Goldman, a Democratic representative from New York, told him: “I have a simple suggestion: if you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or secret police, then stop acting like one.”
At least two dozen ICE agents have been charge with crimes since 2020, a study conducted by the Associated Press found. Wrongdoing included patterns of physical and sexual abuse, corruption and other abuses of authority.
Most of the crimes occurred before Congress awarded the Department of Homeland Security $75bn last year to hire more agents. But commentators have voiced concerns about the rapid rate of expansion and questioned whether recruits are being adequately vetted.
