Trump’s immigration ratings turn negative, new poll suggests - The Boston Globe (2025)

White House aides had hoped that Trump’s actions on immigration and a dwindling number of undocumented immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border would help bolster his public standing despite declining support in other areas.

Prompted by frustrations that the pace of deportations was falling short of the president’s ambitious quotas, the administration has taken more aggressive action in recent weeks. It deported 238 migrants to a mega-prison in El Salvador without the chance to challenge their designation as alien enemies beforehand and targeted international students and faculty at US colleges and universities for removal.

It also resisted orders from federal judges — rulings backed by a unanimous Supreme Court decision — to facilitate the return to the United States of Kilmar Abrego Garcíacq from El Salvador. Abrego García, a Salvadoran migrant who lives in Maryland and entered the US without authorization as a teen, was arrested by immigration officers and sent to the Salvadoran facility.

A 2019 legal order barred his removal, and the administration has acknowledged that Abrego García was wrongly deported. But federal officials say they have no authority to bring him back and have sought to portray him and others as violent gang members, despite producing no evidence.

The Post-ABC-Ipsos poll finds that more Americans say Abrego García should be returned to the country than remain imprisoned in El Salvador - 42 percent versus 26 percent. About three in 10 Americans, however, say they “don’t know enough” to have an opinion, a sign that views on the high-profile case are still forming among a sizable segment of the population.

A narrow majority of Republicans, 53 percent, say he should remain in prison, with just 14 percent of them saying Abrego García should be returned. The remainder say they did not know enough to answer.

By contrast, 74 percent of Democrats say Abrego García should be returned to the US, with 20 percent saying they do not know enough to respond. Among independents, 39 percent say he should be returned, 21 percent say he should be left in El Salvador, and 39 percent did not know enough.

Among those who disapprove of Trump’s immigration policy is Ray King of Nebraska, a machinist who grew up in California and considers himself a moderate Democrat. He characterized the administration’s actions as radical lawbreaking that is jeopardizing basic American values.

Immigration is “a really complicated and very difficult topic and situation, but not following the due process laws that are in place is not a way to fix the problem,” said King, who is White. “That supersedes everything the country was founded on.”

Trump’s track record as a business executive who rarely admitted an error and dragged out legal fights to wear down opponents has convinced King that the president will continue to resist bringing Abrego García back to the US.

“His mentality is: ‘I’m a winner and you’re a loser,’” King said. “If he has to bring the gentleman back, he becomes a loser.”

On Thursday, a federal judge in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to secure the return of a second man at the Salvadoran prison — a Venezuelan who was deported despite being part of a class-action settlement that should have protected him from removal.

Overall, 51 percent of Americans oppose the administration’s efforts to send undocumented migrants suspected of being members of a criminal group to El Salvador, the poll finds, with 47 percent in support.

Among those who favor Trump’s approach is Gregory Samuel, 47, of Oklahoma, an independent voter who supported President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race but soured on him given a spike in illegal immigration during his presidency.

In Abrego García’s case, Samuel said his undocumented status should be enough to send him to El Salvador.

“If you’re illegal, period,” he said. “They got an open door, and I’m pretty sure they are gang members.”

Samuel endorsed having Trump defy the federal court judges, whom he called politicized. “It’s out of balance and is an abuse of power” for judges to impede Trump’s executive authority, said Samuel, who is Black and Native American.

As on other issues, support for deporting alleged members of criminal groups without a court hearing breaks sharply along partisan lines, with 85 percent of Democrats opposing the practice and 82 percent of Republicans supporting it. Just under half of independents support such deportations, while just over half oppose them, the poll finds.

Just under half of Americans, 48 percent, say Trump has gone “too far” on his immigration enforcement efforts. About a third, 34 percent, say Trump is handling immigration “about right,” with 16 percent saying he has not gone far enough in his efforts.

The responses break along racial lines, with about six in 10 Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans saying Trump has gone too far, compared with about four in 10 White Americans.

The administration has sought to deport some leaders of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses who have legal status in the US, alleging they were supporting the Hamas militant group in the Israel-Gaza conflict - despite vehement denials from the protest leaders and their attorneys.

About six in 10 Americans oppose deporting international students who have criticized US policy in the Middle East. Most Republicans, 70 percent, support such deportations, but public approval drops to 36 percent among independents and 11 percent among Democrats, the poll finds.

The Post-ABC-Ipsos poll was conducted online April 18-22 among 2,464 US adults. The sample was drawn through the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, an ongoing panel of US households recruited by mail using random sampling methods. Overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus two points.