According to a recent Siena poll from January 17th, ICE has hit a shockingly low -27% net-approval. Among Democrats, ICE has a -91% net-approval. Polling among Independents also remains deeply in the negative, with a -41% net-approval. However, Republicans remain extremely strong in their support for ICE, with +58% net approval. Looking at this polling, it becomes clear that ICE is deeply unpopular among everyone in the country, with the exception of Republicans.
This kind of polling has become more and more common as Trump’s final term enters its second year. Republican support of various Trump policies remains largely unchanged, but Democrats and Independents have rapidly become unfavorable of Trump’s policies. What’s interesting about the ICE polling is that although this poll would imply that ICE is incredibly unpopular among Americans at large, immigration is perhaps Trump’s only popular policy remaining.
Plymouth Union Research recently conducted a poll that showed that 57% of likely voters supported Trump’s efforts to curb illegal immigration. Furthermore, 74% of Americans believed that fighting illegal immigration was something that the American government should focus on. This included 58% of Democrats and 59% of Kamala Harris voters.
These two polls may seem like a contradiction, but they show how Americans want illegal immigration to be treated. ICE is not unpopular because of its goal, but because of its methods of achieving it. Americans do support curbing illegal immigration, but they see ICE as a cruel and ineffective instrument at accomplishing that goal.
If ICE was carrying out deportations quietly and without the cruelty and sensationalism that many Americans perceive to be, if it was not being deployed into US cities and being used to attack or even kill US citizens, Americans would very likely be in support of its actions. However, Trump has turned ICE from what Americans once viewed as a relatively popular border patrol group that was prone to cruelty and overcorrection but was largely viewed as a force for good, to a cruel organization that some view as a de facto secret police.
It is possible for Trump to make immigration his leading issue, one that resonates with Americans who believe illegal immigration has cost them their jobs and livelihoods, but ICE is not the instrument that will allow for this to happen. If Trump retains his current policy on ICE, his last issue that remains barely above water among voters will slip into the negatives.