Widespread Support for Trump’s Deportation Plan in Latest CBS News Poll

The topline result from the latest CBS News poll shows that Donald Trump currently enjoys a relatively high approval rating, with 53 percent of respondents pleased with the job he has been doing in his first few weeks as president, compared to 47 percent who aren’t as happy. Dig deep into the internals, however, and you will find that Trump is enjoying widespread support for his “program to find and deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally” — and especially for his deployment of troops to secure the border.

That poll was conducted by YouGov for CBS News between February 5 and 7, with the polling outfit surveying 2,175 U.S. adults and tabulating the results. It has a margin of error of +/- 2.5 points.

Presidential Approval

As noted, 53 percent of the respondents in that CBS News/YouGov poll approved of the president’s performance, putting Trump six points above water in popular perceptions.

At the same point during his term, an initial Gallup poll showed that President Biden enjoyed a 57 percent approval rating (37 percent disapproving), which may call into question my description of Trump’s current approval as “relatively high”. Let me explain.

In essence, Trump is a second-term president, albeit one returning after a four-year interregnum. Honeymoons don’t last forever, and the bloom is generally off even the sweetest of White House roses five years in.

Polling wasn’t a thing the last time the nation was in a similar situation (Grover Cleveland returning to the White House after a four-year hiatus in 1893), but it should be noted that when Trump entered office the first time, in 2017, his Gallup rating was split, 45 to 45, with 10 percent of respondents to that poll on the fence.

In football, you play the schedule you’re given, and — election years aside — when you are president your performance is based on how well you were doing in the past.

Speaking of the past, Trump’s current approval in the CBS News/YouGov poll is 3.2 points better than the 49.8 percent of the popular vote that he received in the November presidential election, suggesting there is a small but significant percentage of Americans who are now pleasantly surprised by the result.

In any event, during his first year in office, Biden’s overall approval rating in the RealClearPolitics compendium of 2021 polls was “49.6 percent approve” to “45.4 percent disapprove”.

Trump’s ‘Program to Deport Immigrants Illegally in the U.S.’

To CBS News’ credit, the outlet actually highlighted the fact that 59 percent of Americans approve of what it termed the “Trump Admin.’s Program to Deport Immigrants Illegally in the U.S.”, compared to 41 percent who disapprove.

Illegal immigration was such an unpopular issue for the Biden-Harris administration that Trump claimed in the closing weeks of the election that it would put him over the top on November 5, and that 59 percent approval rating more or less confirms his point.

Some 66 percent of both white and male respondents to the CBS News/YouGov poll approve of Trump’s deportation program, though it’s less popular among Blacks and Hispanics, 51 percent of whom disapprove (with 49 percent of each group approving, respectively).

Interestingly, respondents in every age demographic approve of what Trump is doing on immigration: those 65 and older (62 percent); respondents aged 45 to 65 (63 percent); those who are 30 to 55 (55 percent); and — perhaps most remarkably — 56 percent of Americans surveyed under the age of 30.

As an aside, those youngest respondents were also more likely to state that Trump was doing the “right amount” to end “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)” programs than all other age demographics.

That was the response of 47 percent of those polled under the age of 30, compared to 43 percent of respondents between the ages of 30 to 44, 46 percent of the 45 to 65 crowd, and 44 percent of those aged 65 and older.

As notably, respondents at the younger end of the age scale were less likely to say that Trump was doing “too much” to end DEI (36 percent) than respondents aged 30 to 44 (39 percent), 45 to 64 (37 percent), and 65 and above (44 percent). Note that 16 percent of respondents younger than 30 want Trump to do more to end DEI.

Troops to Secure the Southwest Border

One particular Trump immigration policy garnered particular support — “sending U.S. troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, to try to help stop migrants from crossing”.

Nearly two-thirds, 64 percent, of respondents approved of those military deployments, compared to just 36 percent who disapproved.

An even two-thirds (66 percent) of Democrats and 69 percent of self-described “liberals” disapproved of Trump’s use of the military to secure the Southwest border, but them aside, every other demographic — white, black, Hispanic, male and female, young and old, college degree and none — approved.

‘Large Detention Centers’

 Less popular was Trump’s plan to, as CBS News puts it, “establish large detention centers, where people would be sent and held, while the government determined whether or not they should be deported”.

In response, 52 percent of those surveyed disapproved of such a plan, including 57 percent of females and Independents, 58 percent of blacks, and 59 percent of those with at least a four-year college degree. Among Hispanics, 53 percent disapproved of the plan and 47 percent were in favor of it.

Again, interestingly, the youngest respondents were the most likely to favor such a plan.

Among those respondents under the age of 30, 50 percent both supported and opposed such detention centers. By comparison, 57 percent of the next oldest age cohort were against them — the strongest opposition by age.

Guantanamo Bay aside, however, the administration hasn’t actually revealed that it has any plans for such “large detention centers”, and its public statements about Gitmo suggest that the U.S. Naval Base there would only be used for staging aliens under final removal orders — not “while the government determined whether or not they should be deported”.

In early January, Gallup revealed that among 17 policy goals of the second Trump administration, from cutting taxes to healing the political divide, voters are most optimistic he’ll “control illegal immigration”. On that count, according to CBS News latest poll, Americans largely like what they see — including the youngest adults among us.