New Polling Memo: Five Key Points on Americans’ Current Immigration Views

Access full AV polling memo HERE and online version of this press release HERE

Washington, DC — A new America’s Voice polling analysis offers five key takeaways about Americans’ current immigration public opinion views with detailed evidence for each of the points based on a wide array of recent polling (available in full memo here).

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice: “Americans are concerned about Trump’s reckless mass deportations and want solutions to fix the broken immigration system. Yet there remains deep skepticism about both parties on the issue, meaning those rightly opposed to the Trump mass deportation crusade still have work to do to define an alternative vision and a better way forward than what Trump and the GOP are implementing. The polls underscore the public’s demand for a new and balanced approach that addresses concerns about border security alongside legal status for long-residing undocumented immigrants.”

Based on an array of public polls from September and October 2025, the new America’s Voice memo, available here, makes the following five key points:

1. Trump’s immigration approval remains underwater. In eight separate major public polls released in September and October 2025 (see breakdown here), Trump’s approval rating on immigration averaged 53% disapproval and 44% approval.
2. ICE and mass deportations are unpopular, especially when details about how they are being carried out are tested. As political reporter Peter Hamby summarized about new Echelon Insights/Puck News polling: “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 … It’s usually the case that an attention war favors Trump … But Echelon found that ICE is simply not very popular with Americans these days, and the public is increasingly concerned about their behavior.”
3. Americans strongly prefer legal status for undocumented immigrants over mass deportation and remain supportive of a balanced approach prioritizing both “order and humanity.” By a 72-24% margin, Americans supported legal status for undocumented immigrants over mass deportation in the new 2025 edition of PRRI’s massive sample (5,000+ respondent) American Values Survey. 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.”
4. Americans oppose deploying military and National Guard troops to U.S. cities. Though question wording varied, polling released in October by Quinnipiac, Reuters/Ipsos, CBS/YouGov and NYTimes/Siena each found majority opposition to Trump’s deployment of the U.S. military and National Guard to American cities.
5. Democrats’ immigration “trust deficit” persists, but voters also are skeptical about Trump/Republicans’ handling of the issue. New national and battleground polling released by Third Way, for example, noted, “while voters are softening in their views toward Trump and his party on immigration overall, they still don’t trust Democrats to manage the border responsibly.” Their memo concludes that voters “want balance: a forward-looking vision that emphasizes how immigration strengthens America, accountability for those who break the law, and compassion for those who follow it.”

Read the fuller America’s Voice polling and public opinion memo with five key takeaways on the public’s views: HERE