President Donald Trump began his second term with a huge difference from his first mandate: polls have regularly shown that the majorities of Americans approved his immigration management. In fact, it was his best problem, when it was one of his less popular before.
Six months after his second term, it is still among his best problems, but it is no longer as popular. There was a clear drop in support for immigration management by Trump, his approval note falling on a handful of important surveys.
The trend reflects the decline in its global approval rating, as the administration has pursued an aggressive whole of policies leading to many arrests, but slow progress on the deportations of known unreasonable immigrants condemned for major crimes, as well as controversial clashes on deportations.
While Trump still gets good grades on certain details, including border security, many of his more aggressive specific immigration policies do not register well, even if he continues to put pressure on immigration as a signature problem.
Surveys continue to show immigration among Trump’s most popular problems. But the trend is clear. While most Trump’s voters remain satisfied with his immigration management and other questions, some have told NBC News that they challenge his approach.
“On the one hand, I think it’s immoral,” said Jorge, 21, independent of Florida who voted for Trump last year, in an interview following his answers in a previous survey.
He criticized the Trump administration for not having taken the time to separate people who do not need to be here, who are the criminals, the illegal criminals and the migrants, and separating themselves from the workers who benefit our society, “said Jorge, who refused to share his last name while discussing national policy. “It’s disappointing. … He thinks he can just take everyone.”
Inside data
In the survey after survey during his first weeks in power, Trump’s approval rating on immigration regularly overshadowed 50%.
Fifty-six percent of registered voters approved its immigration management in a late January survey as part of “Trump Tracker” by Morning consumed, which includes its approval rating on a series of problems. Other surveys have found similar results: 51% of American adults approved in an economist / Yougov poll in mid-February, 54% of adults approved in a CBS / Yougov survey at the end of February and 51% of approved adults in a CNN survey in early March.
But in each of these surveys, there was a clear tendency to decrease while more and more Americans are managed on the management by Trump of this major problem. Part of the movement is in the margins of error of the polls, but overall, they systematically show a measure of the decline.
In the survey of mid-July of CNN, only 42% of adults approved immigration management by Trump, while 45% of adults declared the same thing in an economist / Yougov survey in early July, just like 41% in a university survey of Quinnipiac at the end of June.
While almost half or more has always approved the management by Trump of the problem in the last Morning Consult (51%) and CBS / Yougov (50%) surveys in mid-July and at the end of June, respectively, months of statements found the same trend of ratings slightly reduced on immigration.
The Fox News survey, however, has not changed much. Fox News tested Trump’s approval rating on immigration three times, finding it at 47% in April, 46% in June and 48% in July.
This having been said, the landscape remains complicated, especially from a partisan political point of view. When Fox News asked this month this month did a better work on immigration, the Republicans had a 6 -point lead (52% -46%).
Although this is down of the two -digit republican advantage that the survey found in 2022 and 2023, the Democrats had the advantage when Fox tested the question in the first three years of Trump’s first mandate.
Which sparked the public’s reaction
One of the possible reasons for Trump’s wider numbers on immigration has dropped could reside in administration policies itself. Even when Trump’s figures on the issue were higher, the hardest parts of his immigration policy – those that the administration has cheated in recent months – have always recommended its overall number on the issue.
Then, once Trump started playing on these policies, they led media coverage and perceptions of the administration.
The survey of the Wall Street Journal led in mid-January, before Trump returns to the office, provides a clear example of the pre-initial warning panels on a question that was once a force.
Almost three -quarters of registered voters (74%) said they had supported detention and expulsion only of undocumented immigrants who had been found guilty of crimes. It was the second most popular immigration proposal tested, behind the creation of a way to citizenship for “undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States for many years and have been checking the history”, which 79% supported.
The majority of registered voters have also favored the increase in the level of legal immigration and the number of H1-B visas available for highly skilled workers.
The public was in favor of a plan to “hold and expel millions of undocumented immigrants” (52% in favor); Noting that companies could face workers’ shortages due to the plan made it slightly less popular. A majority (53%) also supported the construction of a wall along the Mexican border.
On the other hand, only 38% favored a plan to hold and expel the undocumented immigrants with children American citizens, 31% have favored an appeal to end the citizenship of the dawn and 26% favored the deportation “of undocumented immigrants even if they have lived in the United States for 10 years or more, to pay taxes on profits and not to have criminals”.
Fox News found a similar thing when it questioned the opinions of voters about illegal immigration shortly before Trump returned to the post and at the end of July. Twice, 59% said their opinions closer to “expel only illegal immigrants who have been accused of crimes but allow others to stay in the United States and finally qualify for citizenship”. Twenty-nine percent declared that they had supported the expulsion of all illegal and 11% supported immigrants allowing everything to stay in the country.
In other words, there is a wider support for the general promises of deportations or the deletions on the abolition of criminals that there is support to specifically expel people who have not committed crimes outside the arrival in the United States illegally or people who have American citizens.
Other more recent surveys have reflected these results.
A Mayy NPR / IPSOS survey on immigration found a support close to the majority (48%) to “quickly deport members of alleged gangs under the law on extraterrestrial enemies of 1798” and the pluralities also supported a border wall and allowing local police to have immigrants without legal status.
But a quasi-majority, 46%, supported the “legal status to immigrants without legal status brought to the United States as a child”, and a majority (53%) opposed the end of the citizenship of the right of birth, which Trump tried to do by an executive decree which was disputed in court. And the public was almost uniformly divided on the support of the “mass deportation of all those who are in the country without legal status”.
This week, the Wall Street Journal survey revealed that the voters registered near the uniform division of their approval of the management of Trump of Immigration – 48% approved, 51% have disapproved – and with similar notes for its specifically illegal immigration management – approved at 51%, 49% approved. But as in many other recent polls, certain specific elements of the political survey of administration better than others.
Seventy percent approves “the expulsion of undocumented immigrants”, while 36% oppose.
But 58% oppose the deportation of people “who would be here illegally without ever seeing a judge or obtaining an audience”. And 53% say that “the Trump administration crosses the line” with its expulsion efforts, while 45% say it “does what is necessary”.
The feeling reflects what Trump Latin voters said last month during the discussion groups observed by NBC News as part of the 2025 Deciders series, produced by the University of Syracuse and the commitment firms Engagieux and Sago.
Most voters of the Swing State that participated have always supported Trump and his large stocks on deportations, but a handful of participants criticized the general deportations of the administration. They said Trump and the government should prioritize undocumented immigrants who have committed additional crimes on those who have followed the rules since their arrival in the country illegally.
“He was going to expel people who were criminals and have a history,” said Ruby L., a participant of the discussion group in Colombia and lives in Georgia last month. “But I see that he expels people who work hard and have been in this country. I think it should find a way to help them stay and get citizenship or something. ”