Support for Trump, ICE, in Latest Poll

The Economist has released its latest poll, which was conducted between March 16 and 18 by opinion outfit YouGov. It shows popular support for President Trump’s immigration policies and for ICE, the agency tasked with enforcing those policies in the interior of the United States — even while, or perhaps because, many of the president’s immigration actions have come under increasing criticism.

YouGov surveyed 1,618 U.S. adults for that poll, including 1,458 registered voters. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percent with respect to those voters.

Trump Favorability, Generally. The results of that poll are not all positive for Trump.

Some 51 percent of respondents generally and voters in particular stated that they had an unfavorable opinion of the incumbent, compared to 46 percent of respondents overall and 48 percent of voters who had a favorable impression of the president.

Trump scored particularly poorly among black Americans, 70 percent of whom had an unfavorable view (compared to 26 percent who viewed him favorably), and Hispanics, 63 percent of whom stated that they had an unfavorable view of Trump (35 percent favorable).

That said, Trump enjoys a relatively favorable rating among white Americans, with a 53 percent to 44 percent favorable/unfavorable split.

Issue Importance. YouGov also asked respondents how important various issues were to them, and it reveals that immigration remains a hot topic among the American people.

Some 84 percent of voters polled stated that immigration was either “very important” (56 percent) or “somewhat important” (28 percent) to them. Conversely, just 2 percent of Americans generally and 3 percent of voters stated that immigration was “unimportant”.

Interestingly, Hispanic respondents were more likely (88 percent) to view immigration as an important issue than blacks (80 percent) or whites (84 percent). That said, 59 percent of both Hispanics and whites stated that immigration was “very important” to them.

Trump Approval on Immigration. Half, 50 percent, of respondents approved of the way that Trump is handling immigration, compared to just 45 percent who disapproved. The president does even better among registered voters, 53 percent of whom approve of the job he is doing on immigration compared to 44 percent of the electorate who disapproves.

Contrast those grades with Trump’s performance in other areas: foreign policy — 47 percent of voters approve, 49 percent disapprove; education — 45 percent of voters approve, 47 percent disapprove; and inflation — 44 percent of voters approve, 52 percent disapprove.

Trump’s handling of national security (53 percent approve compared to 43 percent disapprove) and crime (51 percent approve vs. 39 percent disapprove), received broader popular support, but still, the steps Trump has taken to secure the border and remove criminal aliens from the United States remain popular with voters.

One of those steps has been using the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798 to deport members of the Venezuelan prison crime cartel Tren de Aragua (TdA) from the United States to El Salvador, where they have been placed in a high-security prison.

That action has triggered a heated court battle that remains unresolved, but as Wall Street Journal editorial page writer Barton Swaim explained in the paper on March 23:

Both polling and familiarity with ordinary Americans’ opinions suggest that the public is A-OK with the proposition that members of foreign criminal organizations deserve an immediate one-way ticket to some other country. Clearly that isn’t proof that these latest deportations are legally sound. But Americans don’t like their laws and Constitution abused. And if wartime-like deportations make Mr. Trump more popular, not less, we may reasonably ask if the public sees something the legal experts don’t.

. . .

Judges aren’t meant to consider public opinion when they render their rulings, but they might remember that the public sometimes has more sense than the cognoscenti. In the present case, if the Trump administration is denied the authority to deport violent aliens, the public will conclude, with long experience on its side, that such criminals will remain here for good.

Mahmoud Khalil. Another high-profile immigration-enforcement effort has been the administration’s lodging of the rarely used “foreign policy” ground of removal against Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, an alien whose case I analyzed in-depth on March 11 and March 17.

Khalil is an Algerian citizen born in Syria to parents of Palestinian extraction, who came to the United States in December 2022 to pursue a master’s degree in public administration.

In November 2024, he adjusted his status to lawful permanent resident (LPR) and received a conditional green card based upon his marriage to his U.S. citizen wife.

DOJ now asserts he failed to disclose the fact that he had been a political officer at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and that he took part in the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) movement at the school’s Manhattan campus when he filed that application.

As Reuters has reported, “Israel contends that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, leading the U.S. to halt funding of the group,” while the Jerusalem Post asserts that CUAD “perceives itself as a revolutionary force working toward the destruction of the United States and Israel”.

Those omissions are not the basis of the deportation case against Khalil, however.

Instead, the government charges that he is removable under section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as: “An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”.

The secretary of State’s determination letter (which is required in such cases) has not been publicly released, but it appears that the secretary wants to deport Khalil “to help prevent the spread of antisemitism” and because — according to DHS — he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization”.

Khalil and his supporters contend that in reality, he “was targeted for free speech supporting the Palestinian cause”.

His case is also tied up in the courts, but in any event 68 percent of voters in the Economist/YouGov poll said they had heard either “a lot” (27 percent) or “a little” (41 percent) about ICE’s arrest of Khalil, and 31 percent of voters in that poll had an “unfavorable” view of him, compared to just 19 percent who viewed Khalil favorably (half, 50 percent, “didn’t know” one way or the other).

Not to read too much into those results, but this appears to be another high-profile instance in which Trump is using his immigration authority in a manner that appeals to those in the electorate who are paying attention.

By the way, 68 percent of Democrats in that poll claimed they had heard a lot (27 percent) or a little (41 percent) about Khalil, and among that demographic he has a 14-point positive rating, with 29 percent of those in the Party of Jackson having a favorable view of him compared to 15 percent of Democrats who view Khalil unfavorably.

Expand or Reduce ICE. Finally, YouGov asked respondents what they thought about ICE.

More specifically, the outfit asked whether those polled thought that the agency should be “expanded”, “reduced”, “kept the same”, or “eliminated”.

In response, 72 percent of voters stated that ICE should be either expanded (42 percent) or kept the same (30 percent), compared to 22 percent who wanted the organization either reduced (15 percent) or eliminated (7 percent).

That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, to be sure, but it’s important to note that curbing ICE enforcement was a key policy of the Biden administration from Day One and that an “Abolish ICE” movement began in 2018 that is still promoted by both immigrants’ advocates and libertarians.

Those voices are loud, but if this poll is any indication, they are way outside the mainstream, particularly given that ICE expansion is the plurality choice for voters out of the four that YouGov offered.

A Divisive Issue. Immigration has long been a divisive issue, but immigration enforcement was a key promise of Donald Trump in 2024, and as president he has hustled to keep it. Thus far, a majority of voters like what he’s done to secure the borders and enforce the laws governing aliens — and a plurality of them want more ICE, not less.