These days, it’s hard to avoid the callous actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and their place in the headlines obscures important but less dramatic news. Polling now shows that people who were ambivalent or doubtful about immigration have turned around on the subject.
Recent events in Minneapolis have largely been met with disapproval. Poll after poll shows that people don’t think the shooting of Renee Good was justified, and that occupation-like forces upsetting a city is not what they signed on for. A recent CNN poll shows that 51 percent of Americans think that ICE enforcement actions are making cities less—not more—safe, as opposed to 31 percent who think it has made them safer.
Support for the president and his approach to immigration has been eroding since the early months of his second term. In June 2025, Quinnipiac found that 64 percent of voters favored the creation of a pathway to legal status for most undocumented immigrants, a nine percent increate from six months earlier.
While the shooting of Renee Good has had a galvanizing effect, a recent Axios report said that even before an ICE agent killed her, the White House’s internal polling showed that the president’s approach to immigration was unpopular. According to Axios, “60 percent of independent voters and 58 percent of undecided voters said Trump was ‘too focused’ on deporting illegal immigrants, the poll viewed by Trump's team found.”
61 percent of those surveyed disapproved of his handling of immigration.
The change isn’t just a Democrat or independent thing either. A recent PRRI study shows that “Among Republicans, support for a pathway to citizenship increased from 36 percent in 2024 to 40 percent; among Democrats, 77 percent to 82 percent. The increase in support for a path to citizenship was larger for independents, from 55 percent in 2024 to 61 percent this year.”
The same study show support for DACA growing among Republicans, independents and Democrats from 52 percent in 2024 to 60 percent in 2025.
The president campaigned in part on the promise that he would stop the flow of undocumented immigrants into the country, and according to a Marquette Law School poll last fall showed that 54 percent of Americans approve of the job he has done on that front. The administration has tried to lump all of the administration’s immigration-related actions into one, the public separates them and while they approve of his border security efforts, only 45 percent approve of his handling of immigration as a whole.
Similarly, it’s tempting to read the election of the president as a general skepticism toward immigration, but a New York Times and Ipsos poll from January 2025 showed that 56 percent of Americans believed that immigrants strengthened the country. Not surprisingly, this did split significantly along party lines as only 30 percent of Republicans agreed with the assertion and more than 80 percent of Democrats did.
Many of the immigration-related issues faced by The United States flow from the unwillingness of politicians to pass badly needed immigration reform. The reaction to the current administration’ approach says that time may finally be right for it after upcoming election cycles. Smart politicians should start working out sane, equitable plans for immigration reform in much the same way that those tired of all that annoying democracy had Project 2025 ready for the president on Day One.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the actions of the current administration. There’s no shortage of ghastly news, but supporters of immigration need to remember that they are on the right side of the issue, not just morally and in keeping with the historic nature of the U.S., but economically and in public opinion.
Photo by Kevin Nalty on Unsplash.
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