{"id":52759,"date":"2026-01-18T19:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52759"},"modified":"2026-01-18T21:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T03:48:20","slug":"trumps-immigration-crackdown-faces-growing-disapproval-from-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52759","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown faces growing disapproval from voters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Trump\u2002<\/u><\/a>is facing signs that his immigration crackdown is losing popularity with American voters as fallout grows from the fatal shooting of a Minnesota woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent polling has found Trump\u2019s approval on immigration at a low point and shown that even some Republican voters<\/u><\/a> are critical of immigration officers\u2019 approach.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poll numbers come as some high-profile figures on the right have criticized ICE in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting, underscoring the potential political liability for the party as it heads into the midterms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the kind of political issue that can get out of control,\u201d Republican strategist Jason Cabel Roe said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immigration has long been one of the president\u2019s strong suits, and he won his second term partly on the promise of tough border policies and mass deportations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his administration\u2019s aggressive moves have drawn sharp pushback from the left, prompted protests throughout the year and now appear to be dragging down his approval numbers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new Reuters\/Ipsos survey found American approval of Trump\u2019s immigration approach at its lowest point<\/u><\/a> since he returned to the White House. In an AP-NORC poll<\/u><\/a>, just 38 percent of Americans approve of Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement, down from a 49 percent high this spring. And a majority of voters in a recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS<\/u><\/a> said ICE\u2019s actions are making American cities less safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The polls come after ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month, marking a major flash point in Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown and sparking protests<\/u><\/a> across the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Administration officials have argued Ross acted out of self-defense, alleging Good was impeding federal law enforcement. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem\u2002<\/u><\/a>swiftly labeled Good\u2019s actions as \u201cdomestic terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 53-percent majority of voters in a Quinnipiac Poll<\/u><\/a> said the Minnesota shooting wasn\u2019t justified, including 92 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of independents and 10 percent of Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reuters survey<\/u><\/a> found a notable 39 percent of Republicans said officers should limit harm to others, even if they make fewer arrests as a result. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImmigration is an issue with a lot of nuance, and there\u2019s no nuance in the Trump administration\u2019s approach,\u201d GOP strategist Alex Conant\u2002<\/u><\/a>said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmericans want to see immigrants that cause crime deported, but they\u2019re much more tolerant of undocumented immigrants who\u2019ve been here a long time and are contributing to the economy and otherwise not breaking laws,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another signal of frustration in the days since the Minneapolis shooting has come from a small handful of media figures popular on the right, even as Republicans in Washington have largely been supportive of the ICE operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conservative commentator Bill O\u2019Reilly warned that ICE \u201cneeds to deescalate.\u201d<\/u><\/a> And podcaster Joe Rogan,<\/u><\/a> who boasts a right-leaning<\/u><\/a> audience and backed Trump in 2024, questioned<\/u><\/a>, \u201cAre we really gonna be the Gestapo, \u2018Where\u2019s your papers?\u2019 Is that what we\u2019ve come to?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the reality: the President campaigned on and won an election based on his promise to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in history \u2013 he\u2019s keeping his promise and the American people are appreciative,\u201d White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement to The Hill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good\u2019s shooting has renewed some Democrats\u2019 calls<\/u><\/a> to abolish ICE. In an Economist\/YouGov poll<\/u><\/a>, a 46-percent plurality of respondents supported shuttering the agency, including 47 percent of independents and 14 percent of Republicans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A CNN\/SSRS poll<\/u><\/a> found that, among the 56 percent of respondents who labeled the shooting an \u201cinappropriate\u201d use of force, 9 in 10 said it \u201creflects bigger problems with the way ICE is operating.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a drip, drip downward as far as approval on how [Trump] is handling immigration,\u201d Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malloy noted that more than 8 in 10 voters said they\u2019d seen video footage of the Minneapolis shooting just days afterward, and that it could grow to have an even larger impact as coverage continues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic strategist Eddie Vale said his party should seize on the issue entering the midterms, arguing Trump \u201cis in trouble\u201d because of the administration\u2019s hard-line tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhenever they get a chance to talk immigration or health care or the economy, they should [talk about it] because people are against Trump on all of it,\u201d Vale argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic strategist Anthony Coley said Democrats should frame the argument as anti-American. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat ever happened to \u2018love thy neighbor as thyself\u2019?\u201d Coley said. \u201cWhat Trump is doing on immigration isn\u2019t about right vs. left. It\u2019s about right vs. wrong. It\u2019s immoral and anti-American, and that\u2019s how Democrats should talk about it.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Democrats, though, stress the party should be strategic in seizing on the controversy: A memo\u2002from the<\/u><\/a> center-left think tank Third Way cautions the party to \u201cabolish ICE abuses \u2014 not ICE\u201d to avoid the blowback that came with prior calls to \u201cdefund the police.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Republicans argue the winds will shift in the GOP\u2019s favor when it comes to immigration. GOP strategist Ford O\u2019Connell forecasts Trump \u201cis going to prevail on this issue\u201d because Democrats \u201cwill go too far\u201d with calls to curtail ICE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDemocrats think that this is going to be a winning issue for them, and they\u2019re going to be wrong,\u201d O\u2019Connell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Republican strategist Doug Heye said this might be a problem for Republicans in the midterm elections because \u201cthey\u2019ve backed themselves into a corner on this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey can oppose some administration policies \u2014 which leads [the media] to go mental with the \u2018What does it say about Trump\u2019s hold on the party?\u2019 \u2014 but they can\u2019t challenge him on things that are core to his identity. And this is,\u201d Heye said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House border czar Tom Homan this week said\u2002the Trump administration<\/u><\/a> needs \u201cto be better at messaging what we\u2019re doing out there\u201d when it comes to immigration, arguing it faces \u201ca lot of false media.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the signals of voter frustration, whether immigration and ICE actions remain a problem for the GOP in the midterms depends on what happens next, Republican strategists said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt depends how the Democrats respond. I think if the Democrats become anti-ICE and anti-law enforcement, I think that that will only help Republicans. If instead Democrats use this opening to rebrand themselves as more middle-of-the-road on immigration \u2026 that could help them politically,\u201d Conant said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Trump\u2019s overall disapproval rating is reaching all-time highs as the immigration debate intensifies, Republicans \u201chave plenty of time to claw some of this back\u201d before November, said Scott Tranter, director of data science for Decision Desk HQ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat will be interesting to me is if it affects some of the big primaries, which will have an effect on control. Like, how does this play in the Texas Senate primary in two months? \u2026 How does this play out in the Michigan open Senate race? Immigration is obviously a big issue,\u201d Tranter said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The polling is a problem \u201cin the immediate,\u201d Roe said, but there will be \u201ca thousand outrages\u201d in the 10 months until Election Day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo it is an issue, but I imagine it\u2019s going to get replaced by other issues. But it also depends on how things play out from here,\u201d Roe said, crediting some of the anger over ICE to media coverage and blue-state leaders not cooperating with the agency\u2019s actions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republican strategist Brian Seitchik, who worked for the Trump campaign in 2016, agreed with that sentiment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is short-term pain for long-term gain,\u201d Seitchik said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans running in the midterms \u201care simply going to have to weather the storm.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no magic to get around it,\u201d Seitchik said. \u201cAll we can do is make Americans see the long-term benefit.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump\u2002is facing signs that his immigration crackdown is losing popularity with American voters as fallout grows from the fatal shooting of a Minnesota woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer this month. Recent polling has found Trump\u2019s approval on immigration at a low point and shown that even some Republican voters are critical of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":52760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1418,1214,1230,2872],"class_list":["post-52759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-trump","tag-voters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52761,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52759\/revisions\/52761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}