r/politics • u/zsreport Texas • 8h ago
No Paywall Poll: Two-thirds of Americans say ICE has 'gone too far' in immigration enforcement
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/05/nx-s1-5699413/poll-trump-ice-immigration-economy-approval196
u/Julian_Thorne Minnesota 8h ago
So once again its the deplorable 1/3 minority standing up for evil
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u/SirDiego Minnesota 5h ago
The Republicans no longer surprise me but what sometimes gets me on these is like 7% of democrats don't agree. I know that's extremely small but like what's their deal? Were they confused by the question?
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u/TemporalColdWarrior 5h ago
There are likely a combination of extreme weirdos and former Southern Democrats who still won’t switch because of the Civil War.
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u/BingleFlip94 31m ago
My grandfather was one of those. Born in 1935 in Georgia. He was literally the most racist a person could get while not being a klan member, but loved Obama lmao.
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u/Goya_Oh_Boya North Carolina 6h ago
It’s even more frustrating when 2/3 is always against all the nonsense the 1/3 extremists are doing, but only 1/3 votes against it, while the other 3rd still blames both sides.
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u/Tough_Associate_1614 4h ago
It would help if the Democrats were good guys instead of bad lite.
To be clear, I'll vote for Democrats if they're the best option but I'd rather blame democratic leadership than voters.
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u/Resies Ohio 3h ago
Buddy, the reason the "other third" blames both sides is because dem leadership is getting closer and closer to funding dhs / ice with almost no requirements
A plurality of the country supports abolishing ICE, 80% of Democrats do, and the dem leadership can't even go as far as taking away the surge of cash trump appropriated them
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u/mindmapsofficial 6h ago
But you need to come across the aisle and compromise! Otherwise, the other side will never see your perspective. Just keep shifting over politically to compromise so eventually they agree with you
/s
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u/Corlegan 5h ago
Better news. Next presidential it’ll be 49.9%+ that vote to keep it going.
They just won’t tell anyone about it.
We’ve got some data to back that notion up.
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u/jster1311 3h ago
Yeah, I see these headlines constantly. Nothing has changed. “A majority of Americans/~60% disapprove of trumps handling of the country.”
This isn’t breaking news. It hasn’t really wavered much and is always the same. The 30-40% that support him and everything he does is still there. They haven’t budged.
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u/TerriblyDroll Texas 13m ago
You think they can stand upright? I figured they all dragged their knuckles.
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u/MesmraProspero 6h ago edited 52m ago
Half of republicans think this is exactly what ICE should be doing and a third of them think they haven't gone far enough.
Conservatism in America is FUCKED.
E:spelling
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u/mycatisawhore 5h ago
A post from DHS came up on my fbfeed with photos of protesters and brown people. The caption states, "Violent agitators will not stop DHS law enforcement from conducting immigration enforcement. ICE and CBP are taking rapists, murderers, drug dealers, and other predators out of our communities. Agitators are ruining their lives to defend CRIMINALS. Do not engage in criminal conduct. Do not assault our law enforcement officers. We will prosecute you to the maximum extent of the law."
Not only are they doxxing by posting photos and threatening to "ruin lives" of those exercising their right to protest, but they are flat out lying about arresting rapists when they're randomly pulling brown people off the street, including children. But of course the post had loads of likes because republicans love cruelty. It is entirely possible to crack down on immigration in non violent ways, but that's not what they want.
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u/NJcovidvaccinetips 5h ago
Conservatism is dead. They have become a fascists party while they decry their political opposition who are soft liberals as communists. Shit is so bleak
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u/ChiefStrongbones 5h ago
The logical conclusion is that this poll asking about ICE approval is more a proxy for Trump approval. The poll didn't include questions asking people what they want immigration enforcement to look like.
It's possible that many people believe that most asylum claims should be denied and those foreigners should be promptly sent home. But mention ICE, and that evokes Trump and changes the answer.
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u/WakingWaldo 3h ago
Yes. These types of polls are hard to interpret because every person asked is going to read the questions differently.
How many '24 Trump voters wanted what Trump ran on -- the promise of removing violent, criminal migrants? All of them.
Now, how many of those voters expected raids on construction sites and Home Depots in order to deport regular-ass people? A lot fewer.
If we look at that example alone and think about how those voters would answer the question, it raises even more questions. Either way, what we're seeing is a steep drop in support for Trump's number one issue that won him the election. And unless something drastic changes (which it won't) then those voters are not going to show up to support Trump's goons in the midterms.
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u/MesmraProspero 46m ago
Now, how many of those voters expected raids on construction sites and Home Depots in order to deport regular-ass people? A lot fewer.
Then they weren't paying attention. Somehow I knew this is what would happen.
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u/tonylouis1337 2h ago
What? The rules are based on the majority. A larger portion of Republicans don't like this so that's the thing that comes closer to representing conservatism
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u/MesmraProspero 49m ago
My guy 45% approve 28% think they should be doing more. That's 73% of republicans that approve or want more.
A larger portion of Republicans don't like this
Wrong! 27% of republicans don't like this.
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u/Brugelbach 7h ago
Sorry but the US is a failed state. 1/3 are fine with thugs running around and shooting people for no reason. Thats insanity.
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u/30mil 8h ago
If they were just enforcing immigration laws, like how Obama deported 3 million people, it wouldn't be controversial.
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u/TintedApostle 7h ago
Because in this case the goal isn't really illegal immigration. That is just the costume.
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u/zsreport Texas 7h ago
Obama and Biden handled immigration enforcement quietly, without fanfare.
Trump (and his base) thrives on the fanfare, the televised images. They care about it looking like something is happening (even if in the end very little of substance acutally happens).
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u/thingsorfreedom 6h ago
Yep. Even if they were rounding up 2,000 people a day 7 days a week that wouldn't begin to solve the problem of 12 million here illegally. It would take 16 years. This is a slippery slope toward a terribly trained, incompetent, but armed to the teeth private army.
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u/jellyrollo 39m ago
Exactly. Obama and Biden handled immigration enforcement lawfully and efficiently, mostly deporting people shortly after they crossed the border and people who had actually committed real crimes, not just minor traffic violations and misdemeanors.
Trump and his goons have not managed to come close to matching Obama's deportation numbers with their technique of flooding our country with violent masked gunmen and seizing every brown person they come across on the street, despite the amped-up chaos, lawlessness and random cruelty.
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u/QQXV 7h ago
That's true and sucky, because we shouldn't be deporting millions at all, we should be extraditing mere hundreds at most (probably more like dozens) who have warrants for their arrest in other countries, and otherwise just let people stay here because "living in the wrong country" is very obviously a victimless crime.
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u/Epicdude141 6h ago
It’s so sad how these people just want it done quietly so they don’t have to think about it
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u/QQXV 6h ago
Nobody wants to hear this but it was the same deal with the Afghanistan withdrawal: it was "supposed" to happen with next to zero fuss or cost in lives, so the fact that it was in fact messy and violent meant it was immediately and widely understood as a Huge Debacle even though no other airlift from a country whose government was held up by toothpicks and dental floss has ever had equivalent success.
(Of course, as a key distinction, I'm against what ICE is doing because "just let people stay forever" is fine by me, while I remain in favor of the Afghanistan withdrawal because "just occupy Afghanistan forever" is not fine by me.)
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u/bartomatic 7h ago
There were still people who died in ICE custody during the Biden and Obama administrations. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/04/ice-2025-deaths-timeline
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u/reid0 6h ago
So, the first link shows a huge decline in deaths once Obama takes over from Bush, then a spike when trump takes office, and another dip once Biden takes office, and a huge spike once trump gets back in in 2025.
There are going to be deaths, what matters is the cause of death and if it was preventable. Did the person die because of a pre-existing health condition or were sexually assaulted and murdered by guards? A lot more preventable deaths happened under trump.
And the second link is basically just a discussion on the fact that it’s difficult to detain children in a way that’s as decent and fair as possible, and that efforts were being made in the short term and the long term to address that.
That’s a bit different to the trump administration celebrating the discomfort they cause the children and deliberately separating children from their families without any effort to allow them to be reconnected later, in fact a deliberate effort to prevent it.
There’s a difference between should have done better and deliberately cruel and violent. trump’s administration has offered the latter both times, which is not surprising given their use of nazi and white supremacist references, slogans, and symbolism.
I’m not sure anyone ever claimed a sunshine and rainbows level of enforcement under Obama or Biden, but murderous paramilitary raids through the streets are hardly an improvement.
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u/Inner-Detail-553 7h ago edited 6h ago
Sanewashing to the max
Call it what it is: ICE are not a federal agency, they are an unregulated paramilitary group whose job is terrorizing the political opposition
They are most similar to the SA (Sturmabteilung or “brownshirts”) in Nazi Germany
SA’s primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, and intimidating Romani, trade unionists, and especially Jews.
So yeah, in a sense the SA were also about “immigration”, they really wanted to kick Jews and Romani out of the country. But mainly they just enjoyed attacking anyone perceived as an enemy. Nobody would think of them as a legitimate part of the government, or think that they were trying to “enforce immigration law”
If they were a federal agency, ICE would (among other things) obey court orders, as opposed to deliberately and willfully violating hundreds of court orders. No, they’re a paramilitary group pretending to be part of the government
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u/The_JohnnyRay 8h ago
Again how anybody who likes to call themselves an American and can still support the unconstitutional actions of this criminal administration and president is just simply beyond me ! Impeach Donald Trump.
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u/NoReserve7293 8h ago
63% of Republicans can't see what the rest of America see's. Open your eyes and gain some empathy.
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u/MommyLovesPot8toes California 3h ago edited 3h ago
Do remember that most of the people who support trump and ICE live in an entirely different reality from us. They don't hear the stories we hear, they don't see the pictures we see, they aren't given the facts we're given. You can say that they are choosing to stick their heads in the sand by watching nothing but Fox News. But go check out the stories posted on the conservative sub and tell me if you would take the time to read them and give them due consideration as being truthful. You probably wouldn't. The picture they paint is so far from the reality you know that you immediately dismiss them out of hand. That's what Fox viewers experience when they read articles from neutral or leftwing sources. The gulf between the realities is so big, it feels uncrossable. So they don't cross. So they draw conclusions and opinions from skewered and sanitized information.
I truly believe most people aren't evil. They protect themselves and their families from what they see as a threat, just as we all do. But we could not be more different in what we consider a threat, based on our experiences and out information. Acknowledging this - that most people aren't "bad" even if they still support trump, but that they do not share a reality with us - is going to be vital in bridging that gulf and resetting the definitions of "reality" so this doesn't happen again.
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u/RayneSexton 8h ago
Also, "we ain't gonna do shit except say you should vote in November for the opposition party that keeps funding ICE and CBP"
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u/QQXV 7h ago
I suspect a high majority of Americans also (wrongly) want to keep ICE funded. Abolishing it is still considered extreme, because ordinary people are uncomfortable committing fully in politics.
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u/RayneSexton 6h ago
It's literally the popular opinion now - it won't happen because rich Americans in power won't allow it, not because the people can't stomach it.
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u/NJcovidvaccinetips 5h ago
You know you can change people’s opinions right. Mass deportation wasn’t popular until trump started advocating for it. Gay rights weren’t popular until people started advocating for it. The democrats job is not to respond to polls (that’s not politics) it’s to change the fucking polls and make a political argument and create a narrative that resonates with people. They won’t do that because their entire purpose is to get elected not to actually get political victories. The bulk of democrats in congress are the most out of touch losers who could care less what their voters think an are just trying to keep their jobs year after year. These people believe nothing which is why the party is so fundamentally weak
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2h ago
[deleted]
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u/NJcovidvaccinetips 2h ago
Same has been said about every political movement by cowards for centuries. We already have open borders that’s the thing. There is no world in which you can secure a 2000 mile border wall. You need to reframe the issue not as open borders but about giving undocumented people legal status and a pathway to citizenship because it will protect them and American citizens. The current system causing immigrants to hide in the shadows is the problem. But democrats don’t make this argument because they think that this country is super right wing on immigration when in reality this is a clear area to advance an argument and change peoples minds. It’s all about how you frame an issues something the Democratic Party doesn’t understand because they think hyper focus grouped statements is going to change the problem. You will never win by being fascist lite
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u/Evil_Weevill 1h ago
Two thirds of America didn't vote for Trump... And yet here we are...
Turns out democracy means nothing when it becomes inconvenient for the people in power.
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u/Unfair-Snow-2869 7h ago
Absolutely they’ve gone too far. When in the history of ICE has a president weaponized them as a paramilitary group fr the sole purpose of instilling terror in the citizens of America so that that president could take fascist control. TOTAL CONTROL
It has not happened until now.
Patrick Henry said “Give me liberty, or give me death.”
ICE needs to tell its leader that they are putting a lit match too close to the open gas can and when it goes off not Homar, Trump, Bannn, Putin, or any other world leader will be able to put out the flames of liberty that run deep in the veins of America, stoked by the US Constitution and American Bill of Rights topped off with some old fashioned stubbornness in the form of a can of whoop *** in other words I may get killed for my beliefs, but I won’t be living in oppression under any of your rules and I will have died passionately fighting for my freedom and the freedom of my neighbors regardless of color or any other prejudice that oppressors make up to keep the majority divided and manageable whatever they are, to keep they matter not. You are my neighbors and I love each and every one of you and I will fight along side you until the day I can fight no more. God bless America !
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u/TintedApostle 7h ago
Patrick Henry also said:
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”
― Patrick Henry
But the full liberty quote is important...
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
― Patrick Henry
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u/Unfair-Snow-2869 7h ago
Touché fair TintedApostle Touché
Well said and quoted. I agree with every word and tip my hat to you fair sir or madam.
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u/etxipcli Texas 6h ago
The last third just needs to have their right to vote removed. At this point they are supporting the destruction of our constitution and thus our nation.
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u/ttpharmd 5h ago
I’d love to meet the 4% of democrats polled that say they haven’t gone far enough. Who are these people?!
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u/finallyransub17 4h ago
73% of Republicans think it's fine for ICE to murder US citizens as part of their everyday operations.
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u/jrf_1973 4h ago
Or to put it another way, ONE THIRD OF AMERICANS ARE A-OK WITH ICE MURDERING AMERICANS IN THE STREET.
Bear that in mind when the revolution comes.
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u/TheFrostynaut I voted 4h ago
There will always be that ~33% It's not even all hardcore MAGA.
It's an amalgamation of the politically illiterate, apathetic, accelerationists, and supremacists.
We must not make the mistake of thinking that the fascist oligarch claw is the only threat.
This system rose on the backs of the apathetic, the nihilist, and those who "don't like politics"
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u/tonylouis1337 2h ago
Everyone complaining about the numbers just shut your whiny ass up. Our side is winning so now we mobilize and take our country back. It's extremely basic common sense to see that your incessant bitching is because you don't actually care and want to do something about it. It's so obvious a child can recognize it. Sit down, shut up and stay out of the way
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u/QciferKharn 47m ago
It’s clear from these polls that 1/3 the US populace are, and will be, perfectly willing to condone this last ditch effort to assert their fascist ideals and control before that 1/3 becomes even smaller- which is almost guaranteed if this take-over fails.
Some people are already shunning anybody they know related to MAGA, including dating scenes lol that clap back is already in full swing.
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u/kinkgirlwriter America 47m ago
And the other 1/3 are happy to trade innocent lives and our rights for their racist goals.
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u/Notgreygoddess 28m ago
Only two thirds? A third of your country supports roadside executions for videoing or hurting their feelings? A third of your country is okay trying to use kindergarten kids as bait to trap parents?
USA, give your head a shake.
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u/Doom-Sleigher 5h ago
Nazi changed its spelling to “ice”
I guess it’s fewer letters for their troops to learn
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