How the White House Lost the Public on Immigration
A nation of immigrants.
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images
President Donald Trump spent much of 2025 squandering the public’s support on what was once his best issue: immigration. Yes, he quickly delivered on his campaign promise to secure the southern border. But as the year unfolded, his anti-immigrant agenda drove immigration policy far beyond where most Americans are willing to go. Trump has claimed the US is being “invaded” — on March 15 he invoked the Alien Enemies Act as a pretext to deport more than 200 Venezuelans to the CECOT prison in El Salvador — and that he’s only deporting violent criminals. But ICE’s own data show most have not been charged with crimes.
His approval numbers on immigration have fallen from positive by 9 percentage points in March to negative by 11 points in December, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.