Even some Republicans are growing weary of President Donald Trump’s harsh campaign against immigrants, and Catholics are among those losing faith in the president, according to new polling from Navigator Research.
The polling data were gathered Jan. 8-12, just after the shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota but before the shooting of Alex Pretti last weekend.
Key takeaways of the new survey are:
- ICE’s favorability has dropped significantly since December, and the drop has been even sharper among Americans who have seen news about recent shootings of civilians.
- ICE’s aggression is fracturing the Republican base, as Republican women and Catholics say ICE is too aggressive.
How Americans view Immigration and Customs Enforcement already was deteriorating before Pretti’s execution on a city street last Saturday. Before that shooting, Navigator found overall views of ICE dropped from a favorability rating of net -8 in June to net -14 in December to net -20 in January, after the shooting of Renee Good.
The story of Good’s shooting “broke through to overwhelming majorities (78% heard a lot/some), even among passive news consumers, or those who say news comes to them (65% heard a lot/some),” a Navigator release said.
Those who heard about Good’s shooting by an ICE officer at point-blank range were more likely to view ICE unfavorably (58%) than those who had not heard about it (49%).
More seriously, Trump’s ICE brigade was losing support among Republicans before Pretti’s death.
Navigator reported: “Republicans have begun to fracture on the issue of ICE, with more Republican women now saying ICE has been too aggressive (35% too aggressive, 33% struck the right balance, 20% not aggressive enough). Similarly, a majority of Catholic Americans, a slightly Republican-leaning group (46% lean Republican, 44% lean Democrat), believe ICE has been too aggressive in their actions (59% too aggressive, 27% struck the right balance, 13% not aggressive enough).
Republicans remain far less likely to be critical of ICE than the general population, however. Among all Americans, 59% said in January they believe ICE has been too aggressive.
Earlier, Navigator conducted focus group interviews with Trump voters and found a growing group of “Trump regretters.”
Among this group, “Trump is seen as failing across the board — on his priorities, being presidential, on tackling the economy, on his handling of the Epstein files, and on ‘going too far/ on immigration and ICE.”
Other groups that have recorded sharp drop-offs in ICE’s favorability are Hispanic Americans (from net -23 in June, to net -30 in December, to net -41 in January), those living in the Midwest (from net -2 in June, to net -13 in December, to net -22 in January), and moderates (from net -22 in June, to net -31 in December, to net -39 in January).
Another rapid polling firm found a slim majority of Republicans (51%) continue to support ICE wholeheartedly and another 26% said they somewhat approve of ICE’s actions. That compares to 83% of Democrats and 60% of independents who strongly oppose ICE actions, according to the YouGov poll conducted Jan. 25, the day after Pretti’s killing.
Statista interpreted the YouGov poll as this: “Despite widespread outrage over the ongoing federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and growing criticism of the methods applied by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the vast majority of Republicans continue to back ICE.”