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By Dan Gooding
Associate News Editor
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Republicans appear to be changing their views on immigration policies, while the majority still support President Donald Trump in the way he is handling the issue.
A new poll from Gallup Friday shows a steep drop among Republicans wanting immigration levels into the U.S. decreased – falling from 88 percent in 2024 down to 48 percent in June. The same survey showed an uptick in Republicans who see immigration as having a positive effect on the U.S.
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"These shifts reverse a four-year trend of rising concern about immigration that began in 2021 and reflect changes among all major party groups," Lydia Saad, director of U.S. social research at Gallup, wrote in the poll analysis.
The White House refuted the poll, telling Newsweek that other polls in previous months had shown support for Trump's policies.
"Now that President Trump has reversed Biden's disastrous immigration policies and stopped the flood of criminal illegal aliens pouring into the country, Americans have a lot less to be worried about," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Newsweek in a statement Friday afternoon.
"For the last two months, ZERO illegal aliens were released into the country – in 2024, under Joe Biden, 62,000 illegals were released into the country during one month. Recent polling indicates Americans overwhelmingly approve of the President's immigration policy. He is fulfilling the promises he was elected on and the American people are grateful."
Why It Matters
Trump returned to the White House in January having run his election campaign on the idea of mass deportations and tougher border security, after years of increased illegal crossings at the southwest border and concerns around immigrant criminals across the country.
While Republican voters repeatedly showed in polls last year that they wanted stronger immigration policy, the realities of enforcement under the second Trump administration appeared to reflect a softening in views among some on the right.
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What To Know
The Gallup survey, conducted June 2-26 among 1,402 U.S. adults, showed a drop in the number of Americans wanting immigration levels decreased. After peaking at 55 percent in 2024, that number fell to 30 percent last month. The drop was even starker among Republicans, with that change from 88 to 48 percent — nearly cut in half — in the space of a year.
When the last survey was conducted, anti-immigrant sentiment was likely at a high as the presidential election campaign ramped up and frustration remained around former President Joe Biden's handling of the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.
At the same point last year, border crossings were already on the decline, though they dropped even more precipitously after Trump's return to office in January.
More Americans also indicated that they viewed immigration as having a positive effect on the country, hitting 79 percent in June. Among Democrats, the number was at 91 percent, while for Republicans the number jumped from 39 percent last year to 64 percent this year.
In 2024, 32 percent of Americans overall said immigration had a negative effect. That dropped to 17 percent in 2025.
As for specific immigration policies, there appeared to be shifting support for some of the key policies Trump has sought to implement after having promised them on the campaign trail.
Recent deportation efforts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in sanctuary cities like Los Angeles, as well as efforts to revoke protective status for thousands of immigrants in the country legally, have shown the full scale of the administration's efforts appear to be making voters more oppositional on the issue.
In 2024, 76 percent of those asked wanted to see more Border Patrol agents hired, but that support fell 17 percent in a year. Support for building more of the border wall and "deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home country" also decreased.
There were, however, slight increases in support for allowing illegal immigrants, or children of illegal immigrants, to achieve U.S. citizenship — providing they meet certain criteria.
While the big drivers for these changes came among Democrats and Independents, Republicans also showed increased support for pathways to citizenship – something seen in surveys leading up to and around Election Day in November.
Despite Trump saying at various times that he wanted to help those known as "Dreamers" remain the country, the White House has not announced any policies around the issue.
Instead, the focus has been on immigration enforcement, including ICE raids that have led to a spike in the agency's detention numbers.
At the same time, Trump is maintaining strong levels of support among Republicans for the way he is handling immigration, per the Gallup poll. But the majority of Americans strongly disapprove of his administration's actions.
What People Are Saying
Stephen Yale-Loehr, a former immigration professor at Cornell University, told Newsweek: "The Gallup poll results show that President Trump's mass deportation efforts are backfiring. Americans realize that immigration is good for the country and that we need immigrants to grow our economy."
Gallup's Lydia Saad, in her analysis: "The surge in illegal border crossings during the Biden administration triggered heightened public concern about immigration and increased demand for stricter enforcement. The Trump administration's swift and visible response appears to have defused that concern, particularly among Republicans.
"As a result, Americans' attitudes on immigration have largely returned to where they stood before the recent border surge, marked by broader appreciation for immigration, less desire to reduce it, and more support for pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants."
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, told Newsweek in a statement: "The poll shows clearly that the public is reacting negative to President Trump's immigration agenda. People wanted chaos at the border ended. They didn't want the chaos shifted into the interior, into their streets and communities."
Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, said in a press release: "We know our economy depends on the essential contributions of immigrants. California is the fourth-largest economy in the world not in spite of immigrants, but because of their contributions not only as a workforce, but as consumers and as entrepreneurs.
"Now is the time to finally deliver a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, farm workers, and other long-term residents of our nation who have been living and working in the shadows for far too long."
What's Next
Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill", signed into law last weekend, drastically increases funding for immigration enforcement efforts, likely leading to more detentions and deportations that could speed up the trend in public opinion that Gallup has revealed.
Update 7/11/25, 12:48 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Update 7/11/25, 5:21 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from a White House spokesperson.
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