Donald Trump’s unprecedented immigration crackdown has officially been in effect for six months. Recent results from a Gallup poll indicate that public perception about those policies has seen a drastic turnaround. The survey reveals that while Trump has intensified his rhetoric and enforcement measures, public support for strict immigration policies has dwindled.
Certainly, Trump’s administration has experienced intense backlash over incendiary immigration policies. These policies terminated protected status as well for nationals from countries, including Venezuela and Haiti, where conditions have since worsened. These actions have been met with national outrage and are the subject of several lawsuits. Critics are alleging that the administration has overreached and is infringing upon the US Constitution.
In the wake of these abuses, Trump has doubled down on mass deportations as an anchor of his 2024 re-election campaign. He often uses incendiary language to paint migrants in the worst possible light, even reading a poem that compares migrants to poisonous snakes. Yet this overreaching tone seems to have disenchanted a segment of the electorate.
The Gallup survey makes clear just how significant this shift in public opinion really is. Only 38 percent of respondents now support “deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home country,” a notable decrease from 47 percent last year. Support for cuts to immigration has dropped by 25 points since last year. Additionally, support for the US-Mexico border wall has dropped to just 45 percent, an eight-point decline.
David Bier, an immigration policy expert at the libertarian Cato Institute, called the survey results an “absolute bloodbath” for Trump. Instead, he said, deporting all illegal immigrants has become a position mostly confined to the extreme right.
So even though support for hardline measures has fallen, a record 79 percent of respondents in the Gallup survey still think immigration is a “good thing” for the country. This is representative of a major change in the zeitgeist. This sentiment captures a major shift in thinking. Gallup reports that “Americans have grown markedly more positive toward immigration over the past year, with the share wanting immigration reduced dropping from 55 percent in 2024 to 30 percent today.”
Yet curiously, public concern about the rise in undocumented immigrants entering through Mexico has dropped even more. With illegal border crossings at their lowest point this year, fewer Republicans and Americans overall than in June of 2024 continue to favor hard-line measures to enforce the border. Instead, pressure has built to provide routes to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.
The opposition to Trump’s policies has unleashed the largest public outrage in decades. Yet they have led him into costly legal battles, including a shocking $20 million claim for wrongful detention brought against him. The political landscape is fluid and public attitudes are shifting rapidly. It will be worth watching these trends closely to see how they affect the success of Trump’s immigration agenda and his overall re-election prospects.
