New UMass Poll Finds Continued Partisan Division and Erosion of Support for President Trump’s Immigration Policies

As support for ICE tactics also declines, Americans widely reject the physical assault of officers or attempts to obstruct their efforts to carry out arrests

Source: UMass News & Media

Fifteen months into President Donald Trump’s second term in office, a new national University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll finds public support continuing to erode on his handling of immigration, one of the main issues that drove his successful 2024 campaign.

The poll of 1,000 respondents, conducted March 20-25, finds that a majority (54%) disapproves of how Trump has handled the deportation of undocumented immigrants. Meanwhile, support for a number of the nation’s immigration policies has dropped significantly during the past year: support for deporting undocumented immigrants to a country they are not from has fallen to 13%, down seven points since last July, and support for separating undocumented immigrant parents from their children during immigration enforcement proceedings has fallen seven points since last April, to just 11%.

“Our polling has found that a majority of Americans perceive President Trump’s handling of the issue of immigration in a negative light, a stunning reversal from the first months of Trump’s second presidency, when half of Americans gave the president high marks for his policies designed to respond to undocumented and legal immigration,” says Tatishe Nteta, Provost Professor of Political Science at UMass Amherst and director of the poll.

“This U-turn in public sentiment may reflect the president’s mishandling of his push to deport the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, as 6 in 10 Americans express disapproval of how his administration has handled the nationwide protests against his immigration policies, the investigation of the killing of American citizens by ICE officers (59%), and his relations with mayors and governors in states with large immigrant populations (59%),” Nteta continues. “With the 2026 midterm elections on the minds of the Republican Party, a pivot from the Trump administration’s response to the issue of undocumented immigration and nationwide protests may be one solution to the GOP’s increasingly dim chances of retaining control of the U.S. Congress.”

“Immigration is among the most divisive partisan issues, with Democrats and Republicans disagreeing strongly across a range of questions,” explains Raymond La Raja, Professor of Political Science at UMass Amherst and co-director of the poll. “The divide is most stark on views of how President Trump handles enforcement. While Republicans overwhelmingly approve of his handling of border security (93%) and deportations (91%), Democrats are almost uniformly opposed, leaving independents – where roughly 45% approve – as the key swing group on immigration enforcement.”

“Trump’s handling of immigration at the southern border is the only immigration policy where at least half of Americans express approval for his efforts,” Nteta notes, with the poll showing an exact 50-50 split on approval of the president’s handling of this issue. “His enforcement policies at the southern border are particularly popular with core members of the ‘Trump coalition,’ receiving high marks from men (57%), working class Americans (51%), Republicans (93%) and the GOP MAGA movement (94%).”

Views on ICE
Just one-third (33%) of respondents to the new UMass Amherst Poll expressed approval for the way ICE is doing its job, and support has decreased since July 2025 for a number of tactics used by ICE officers.

“What do Americans think of ICE? Our polling suggests that majorities of Americans hold negative views of the agency,” Nteta says, “with 59% disapproving of the way that ICE has handled its job and 50% believing that ICE officers are not adequately trained in conducting their immigration enforcement efforts.

“Like much of American politics, we see a clear partisan divide on this assessment with close to 8 in 10 Republicans, conservatives, Trump voters, and MAGA supporters expressing approval of ICE, and more than 9 in 10 Democrats, liberals, and Harris voters indicating their disapproval of the controversial agency,” he explains. “When asked directly whether ICE should be eliminated, however, only 38% of Americans express support for this change, with Democrats (70%), liberals (78%) and Harris voters (68%) the lone groups to exhibit majority support. With President Trump committed to using ICE to address the issue of undocumented immigration, it is likely that the controversy surrounding ICE will not go away anytime soon, and our polling indicates that the public – for all its misgivings about its performance – is not inclined to pull the plug on ICE.”

Jesse Rhodes, Professor of Political Science at UMass Amherst and co-director of the poll, notes that the poll finds respondents generally support the public’s efforts to keep ICE’s actions in check, short of physical confrontation.

“Americans strongly support peaceful protests against ICE (73% support), as well as efforts to monitor ICE arrests (56% support),” Rhodes says. “However, they draw the line at actions that interfere with ICE actions or escalate tensions between ICE officers and civilians – they don’t condone aggressive actions by ICE protestors. Indeed, opposition to confrontational protest activities against ICE, such as obstructing ICE officers (55% oppose), attacking ICE officers (74% oppose), and carrying firearms at protests (a plurality of 47% oppose), is widespread, crossing demographic and political boundaries. It’s possible that many Americans fear that aggressive activities could escalate the situation, leading to more violence. It’s also possible that many Americans don’t blame ICE officers for enforcement, and view officers as just doing their jobs.

“In short, Americans seem to believe that non-violent, unobtrusive activism is the best way to respond to ICE immigration actions,” Rhodes says.

“Americans support immigration control and enforcement, but they want it to be limited, lawful and humane, not aggressive or unchecked,” La Raja says. “Majorities oppose militarized tactics such as using military-grade weapons (56% oppose, 26% support), or wearing masks (55% oppose, 29% support), using physical force against protesters (58% oppose, 26% support), and curtailing U.S. citizens’ civil liberties, such as arresting citizens for observing ICE agents’ actions (69% oppose, 13% support).”

“There are huge partisan and ideological differences in public support for ICE tactics,” Rhodes notes. “Strong majorities of Republicans and conservatives support tactics such as wearing masks, using military-grade weapons and using force against protestors, and large majorities of Democrats and liberals oppose these tactics. This reflects both significant differences in beliefs about how immigration should be handled, and major differences in the parties’ respective coalitions. Republicans and conservatives are much more likely to support strong immigration enforcement, but they are also more likely to be members of communities that will not bear the brunt of this enforcement. In contrast, Democrats and liberals have more permissive immigration attitudes (and more negative views of ICE), in no small part because they are more likely to be members of communities that could face increased scrutiny, and intervention, from ICE.”

La Raja notes that Americans may be most wary of the level of training ICE officers have received prior to entering their communities. “Confidence in ICE is really weak across the nation,” he says. “Just 29% of Americans believe ICE officers are adequately trained to do their job. So even though the public is not anti-enforcement by any stretch, citizens are concerned about the quality and tactics of ICE agents. This means ICE will continue to face pushback when the public perceives them as performing cruelly or incompetently.”

“Support for ICE activities has declined since July 2025,” Rhodes concludes. “Although a majority of Americans still approve of peaceful ICE arrests of undocumented immigrants, support for the use of physical force and military-grade weapons has fallen. It seems clear that violence by ICE, and particularly the high-profile killings of Rene Good and Alex Pretti, is eroding support for the aggressive tactics by ICE officers.”

Views on Immigrants
The new UMass Amherst Poll also asked respondents of their views on immigrants, both legal and undocumented, and of the rights to which they are entitled.

Approximately three-quarters of those surveyed agree that legal immigrants are entitled to rights entrusted to U.S. citizens, such as freedom of speech, right to legal representation and a hearing before a judge prior to deportation, freedom from cruel or unusual punishment and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. The poll’s respondents hold more limited views toward undocumented immigrants, however. Just 55% say undocumented immigrants are entitled to freedom of speech, 56% say they hold the right to legal representation and a hearing before a judge prior to deportation, 65% say they have freedom from cruel or unusual punishment, and only 49% say they should be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Overall, though, Nteta notes that Americans’ views of undocumented immigrants remain relatively positive.

“From the time he descended the golden escalator in Trump Tower to announce his first run for the presidency, Donald Trump has demonstrated an affinity for making controversial claims concerning the threat of undocumented immigrants to Americans,” Nteta says. “Do Americans subscribe to views of undocumented immigrants that President Trump espouses? Our polling finds that many Americans reject the most brazen claims made by the president, with pluralities disagreeing that undocumented immigrants take jobs from Americans (46%) or are more likely to commit violent crimes (43%) or illegally vote in our elections (45%). While the president continues to paint undocumented immigrants as a threat to Americans, these messages may not be resonating like they once did, and if this declining sentiment continues the president and the Republican Party may lose the competitive advantage that they once enjoyed on the issue of undocumented immigration.”

“Partisans often seem to be talking past each other on undocumented immigrants,” adds Alexander Theodoridis, Associate Professor of Political Science at UMass Amherst and co-director of the poll. “One obstacle to finding common ground may be disagreement regarding just how serious a transgression undocumented immigrants are committing by being in the United States illegally. To better understand this, we asked Americans to rate the seriousness of several crimes. Republicans and Democrats show remarkable agreement regarding the seriousness of all the crimes we asked about…except immigrating to the U.S. illegally. We find a massive chasm on this topic – on average, Democrats rate coming to the U.S. illegally just above driving over the speed limit in terms of seriousness of the crime. Republicans, on the other hand, place it near drug trafficking, and well above driving under the influence. It is hard to agree on how undocumented immigrants ought to be treated when we disagree so dramatically on just how serious a crime their very status represents.”

Theodoridis also explains that the survey showed there are some specific qualities that would make respondents more or less likely to support the legal admission of an immigrant to the U.S. “Our results suggest a preference for highly skilled or highly educated immigrants, or those who speak English,” he explains. “Americans are also more sympathetic to the admission of individuals with U.S. citizen relatives or who are seeking asylum. Only 16% of respondents tell us they prefer legal immigrants who are white, but nearly 3 in 10 (28%) are less likely to support admitting Muslim immigrants.”

The survey’s respondents largely agree, however, that regardless of who they are and how they came to the U.S., immigrants should be able to retain the elements of their native culture.

“Most Americans (61%) say immigrants should be able to maintain their culture, rather than adopt mainstream American culture (39%),” La Raja says. “This tells us the country still largely embraces the idea that we are a ‘nation of immigrants’ who contribute their unique traditions to American society. On the other hand, and as has been the case throughout American history, a sizable fraction of Americans see immigrants as a threat. It highlights a deep tension between national ideals and perceived threats. Our poll shows roughly 1 in 3 believe that native-born Americans are losing their economic, political and culture influence because of growing numbers of immigrants, and 1 in 4 agree that immigrants ‘invade and colonize the U.S.’ So the ‘nation of immigrants’ narrative clearly persists, but not without anxiety, particularly among Trump’s strongest MAGA supporters.”

“In his recent State of the Union, President Trump devoted large portions of his speech to detailing the various threats posed by undocumented immigrants to Americans’ physical safety, their economic well-being, and the sanctity of the nation’s elections,” Nteta says. “Each of Trump’s declarations of the danger of undocumented immigrants was met with raucous applause by Republican members of the U.S. Congress, but do key groups in Trump’s coalition share his dire views? Surprisingly, we find that only 3 in 10 members of the working class and men express support for these negative views, while less than 2 in 10 African Americans, Latinos and independents share these views.

“Overall, our polling suggests that the issue of immigration, which was once one of President Trump’s signature issues, may have become a hindrance to his ability to connect with significant groups of Americans,” Nteta concludes. “If this is the case, the president and the Republican Party may want to pivot from this issue and focus on issues that may bring these key groups back into the fold and help Republicans keep control of the U.S. Congress in the upcoming midterm election.”

Topline results and crosstabs for the poll can be found at www.umass.edu/poll