Trump Is Flailing On His Signature Issue
Continued polling reveals that Americans are only getting more horrified at mass deportation and want humane solutions for long-settled immigrant contributors.
Donald Trump continues to flail when it comes to an issue that he’s cynically used to his political advantage since descending the golden escalators of Trump Tower more than a decade ago: immigration. Just look at the recent polling.
A slew of recent surveys and polls reveal that not only has Trump continued sinking on his signature issue, the American public is only getting more unsettled with his chaotic and destructive mass deportation agenda, which is raging on unabated as millions of infants and children, senior citizens, U.S. military veterans, and low-income families are at risk of losing critical nutritional assistance due to the majority party’s government shutdown. Beyond growing dissatisfied with Trump’s mass deportation agenda, Americans also want humane solutions for long-settled immigrants who call this country home, the polling further shows.
Some key takeaways based on an array of public polls from September through now:
Trump’s immigration approval remains underwater
ICE and its family separation agenda are deeply unpopular
By a 3:1 margin, Americans want legal status for undocumented immigrants over mass deportation
On the first point, Trump remains underwater on immigration in more than half a dozen separate major polls since the beginning of fall, continuing the trendlines seen from earlier in the year.
“In eight separate major public polls released in September and October 2025, Trump’s approval averaged 53% disapproval and 44% approval – similar to the numbers seen in Summer 2025 and a decline from the early months of the Trump administration,” America’s Voice notes in a new memo. AP/NORC’s poll finds 56-42% disapproval of Trump on immigration, while CBS/YouGov’s poll finds 55-45% disapproval. Meanwhile, PRRI’s polling finds 54-43% disapproval of Trump on immigration, including 41% strongly disapproving vs. 27% who strongly approved.
Critically, the polling seems to suggest that the shocking and often heart-wrenching visuals of the administration’s masked kidnappings are breaking through to members of the public that may not necessarily be in tune with most news developments.
“Some 72 percent of respondents told Echelon that they have ‘seen, read, or heard about [ICE] arrests and immigration enforcement recently,’” as Puck’s Peter Hamby reported. “Not only has Trump made these operations a centerpiece of his agenda from Washington—by talking about deportations regularly in front of the White House cameras, for instance—but the drama is playing out on videos elsewhere, worming its way into social media feeds in a way so many other Trump-focused stories do not.”
Polling from PRRI breaks down how Americans are viewing one of the two federal immigration enforcement agencies that both Trump and top advisor Stephen Miller are using to carry out this agenda (Miller, of course, has held a years-long vendetta against immigrant and non-white communities). By a 57-41% margin, Americans said that things are going in the “wrong direction” regarding the way “the federal government is dealing with undocumented immigrants.” 56% of Americans said they lacked confidence in ICE, while an identical number said they have an unfavorable impression of the agency. 35% of respondents from that polling said they had a “very unfavorable” view of ICE.
Meanwhile, by a 58-38% margin, Americans further agreed that agents “should not be allowed to conceal their identity with masks or unmarked vehicles when arresting people.” Lawmakers and advocates have expressed deep worry over abusers taking advantage of ICE’s anonymity to harass women.
“The first-person videos of masked agents arresting immigrants—often in broad daylight, in public spaces, at times separating zip-tied parents from children howling in anguish—have reached escape velocity across social media platforms,” Hamby continued. “And the political chain reaction sparked by these clips—which have been followed by protests and defiant Democratic governors and mayors, which in turn have been followed by Trump’s threats to send the National Guard into various cities—has fed an endless loop of video and commentary magnifying the fight.”
In just one example of the disturbing visuals emerging from mass deportation, Trump agents have for the second time this summer shot a clergy member with pepper shots who was exercising his constitutional rights of assembly and freedom of religion.
“The pastor, the Rev. Jorge Bautista, was one of dozens of demonstrators who had gathered before sunrise Thursday (Oct. 23) at the entrance of the narrow bridge to Coast Guard Island, a military base near Oakland, where more than 100 U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents were supposed to arrive and stage that day,” Religion News Services reported. Rev. Bautista said he was hoping that his presence as a person of faith would help de-escalate agents. He was wrong. “At that moment, Bautista saw a masked agent approaching quickly, raising his weapon. ‘We come in peace!’ he recalled saying. The agent fired a pepper round from a few feet away, hitting Bautista in the chin and coating his face and neck in orange pepper powder.”
Just as notably, what the polling also shows is that the public wants solutions, strongly preferring legal status for undocumented workers over mass deportation and a balanced approach prioritizing both “order and humanity.”
PRRI’s poll shows Americans supporting some form of legal status over mass deportation by a 72-24% margin. When asked a three-part question about preferred policy for undocumented immigrants, 60% preferred “allow them a way to become citizens provided they meet certain requirements” and 12% preferred “allow them to become permanent legal residents, but not citizens” versus 24% who preferred, “identify and deport them.” A host of relevant summer 2025 polls that found similar support for a balanced immigration approach and legal status over mass deportation: 63-27% in Navigator (July 2025); 59-29% in Fox News (July 2025); 64-31% in Quinnipiac (June 2025); and 65-34% in Pew Research (June 2025).
Modernizing our outdated immigration system and legalizing essential workers would go a long way in helping the nation shore up shortages in critical industries, such as health and agriculture. Instead, the priorities are mass deportation while federal workers are furloughed and infants and children are at risk of going hungry due to dwindling nutritional assistance funding. “By the end of this week, nearly 42 million people in the U.S. who get federal food assistance are in danger of seeing their benefits disappear because of the ongoing federal shutdown,” NPR reports.
The consequences of nutritional aid lapsing will be devastating, both in human costs and historical terms, advocates told NPR.
“’The vast majority are children, working people, older Americans, veterans and people with disabilities,’ Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, says of food stamp recipients. ‘If the SNAP program shuts down, we will have the most mass hunger suffering we’ve had in America since the Great Depression.’” Meanwhile, Chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, which typically deploys to regions impacted by natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes, has deployed to D.C. to help feed furloughed federal workers.
Other apparent priorities by the administration include demolishing part of the People’s House in order to build an ostentatious, $300 million golden ballroom funded in part by major corporations and individuals seeking to curry favor with the president. How about a fancy jet so Kristi Noem can travel to her next photo op? “The head of the Department of Homeland Security signed off on the purchase of two private planes that cost four times as much as the amount previously requested, according to a statement from the House Appropriations Committee Democrats,” Military Times reports.
DHS is also “spending big on self-deportation ads praising Trump during the shutdown,” NOTUS reports. “DHS spent an estimated $100,000 in taxpayer funds to specifically target Instagram and Facebook users interested in Latin music, soccer and Mexican cuisine with one such video.”
“If you’re an illegal alien, this runway is your future because you’re headed home,” Noem states in the ad, claiming that under Trump’s “strong leadership, we follow the law.” That is, unless you happen to be an ally of the president. But for immigrants who work tirelesslessly and diligently pay their taxes, who follow the rules by going to their appointments, who help reinvigorate local communities and economies through their entrepreneurial skills, who help subsidize Social Security for other Americans, and who help feed our country and teach our children, no such grace is extended.
Thank you for giving us a glimmer of HOPE! Thankfully, people are waking up to the horror inflicted by the ICE people, when even a group of children were tear-gassed in a report I read this morning--I can't recall the city where that happened. I have to be careful--reading too much--and then forgetting the source.
The polls are encouraging. But DJT is doing worse things every single day! Between the rage against Canada, the sending of military personnel, ships and bombers to South America to kill men in small boats (which is outright murder), and the destruction of much of the White House, how can we NOT be depressed?
But I'll probably do what I did yesterday, and that's to listen to a You Tube video of The Highwaymen in a 2-hour Tennessee concert--that was just what the doctor ordered. I depend on good music to lift my spirits, and it works 99% of the time!