By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Most Americans share President Donald Trump's view that immigrants living illegally in the U.S. should be deported, but generally disapprove of his hard-line tactics, including masked agents in tactical gear who have clashed with U.S. citizens, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The six-day poll, concluded on Monday, illustrates both the broad appeal of Trump's focus on immigration enforcement and the widespread disapproval of his tactics that could weigh on his Republican Party in November 3 congressional midterm elections.
Some 61% of respondents - including 92% of Republicans and 35% of Democrats - said they "support deporting unauthorized immigrants." Trump's stand on the issue helped him win the 2024 presidential election as he accused Democratic politicians of favoring "open borders."
Sixty-three percent of Democrats said they do not support deporting unauthorized immigrants, compared with 7% of Republicans.
During Tuesday's State of the Union address, Trump tried to reclaim the narrative on immigration, which had been among his greatest political strengths before a wave of street clashes involving ICE agents. These have included separation of families and fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens. Trump on Tuesday said his focus was on criminals, noting, "We’re getting them the hell out of here fast."
ICE GONE TOO FAR, SURVEY FINDS
Some 60% of Americans - including a fifth of Republicans and nine in 10 Democrats - think immigration agents have gone too far, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Among people who do not identify with either party, 65% think authorities have gone too far. These independent voters could be a critical swing group in November when Republicans will try to maintain their thin majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.
Disapproval of Trump's tactics is particularly high among Black and Hispanic Americans, two slices of the electorate that Trump made progress with in the 2024 election.
Seventy-four percent of Black respondents and 72% of Hispanics said they did not like how the administration was handling deportations, compared with 51% of white respondents.
Since February 2025, Trump's overall approval rating among Hispanic Americans has dropped by 7 percentage points to 29% in the latest survey. Among Black Americans it has ticked 2 percentage points lower to 14%. Among white Americans it is down 4 points to 49%.
Significant internal divisions have opened in both political parties over immigration enforcement. Among Republicans who support deportations, 23% said they were uncomfortable with the current tactics employed by immigration officers. Democrats, besides being divided on whether unauthorized immigrants should be deported at all, also disagree on whether to disband the Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch of the Department of Homeland Security, known as ICE, a central enforcement body.
RISING DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION
Some 63% of Democrats said ICE should be abolished, while 30% disagreed. The share in favor was a significant increase from a 2018 Reuters/Ipsos survey that showed 44% of Democrats supporting the idea. The latest survey showed only a third of independents back getting rid of ICE, little changed from 2018.
Only a handful of Democratic congressional candidates this year have called for abolishing the agency, with centrist organizations such as Third Way warning that embracing the idea could hurt Democrats at the polls in November.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos survey, which was conducted online, gathered responses from 4,638 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of two percentage points.
(Reporting by Jason Lange in Washington; editing by Scott Malone and David Gregorio)
