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By Anna Commander
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President Donald Trump's approval rating on immigration has hit a record low during his second term in office, according to a new poll from Reuters and Ipsos on Monday.
Why It Matters
The poll underscores a potential shift in public sentiment that could reshape the political landscape ahead of the 2026 midterms, with 58 percent of respondents saying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have gone “too far” in their crackdown, Reuters reports.
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Trump's bleak score on immigration comes amid backlash following the killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen shot by a Border Patrol officer during a federal operation in Minneapolis, the second fatal encounter involving U.S. immigration agents in the city this month.
What To Know
According to the poll, 39 percent approve of the job Trump is doing on immigration and 53 percent disapprove. The mark dipped from a survey earlier this month that showed the president at 41 percent approval. In February 2025, he scored a 50 percent approval rating on immigration versus a 41 percent disapproval, Reuters notes.
The poll surveyed 1,139 U.S. adults across the country from January 23 to January 25 and has a margin of error of 3 percent.
Reuters notes that Trump's overall approval rating also dropped to 38 percent, matching the lowest mark of his second term.
The Trump administration also faces additional pressure related to immigration policies, as at least 120 Democrats support a resolution to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem following the Minneapolis killings. These efforts would likely face long odds in the Republican-controlled Congress.
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What People Are Saying
Columbia University professor Robert Y. Shapiro, to Newsweek via email Monday night: "It is not surprising since there is more bad news than good news for Trump on the killings in Minnesota and the lying about them. He needs to get the ICE produced violence and seizing of innocent people off the lead in news reports, so he can go back to making the new security of the southern border the dominant story on immigration and let the economy turn itself around. He can take his chances on the fallout from other issues, including the threat posed by the Epstein scandal."
D. Stephen Voss, political science professor at the University of Kentucky, to Newsweek via email Monday night: "Public opinion is inconsistent and unrealistic. Just as poll respondents will call for lower taxes without being willing to cut spending on any expensive programs, they'll demand stricter immigration enforcement without being willing to support the sorts of policies needed to give teeth to immigration laws. The Trump Administration is operating as though their victory over Biden/Harris furnished them with a policy mandate to crack down on immigration, and they're learning the hard way that the public wasn't actually okay with what that sort of crackdown would entail."
Trump, on Truth Social Monday: "Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I! We have had such tremendous SUCCESS in Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have 'touched' and, even in Minnesota, Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP"
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, on X Saturday: "Today, we lost another Minneapolis neighbor after multiple ICE agents pummeled him and shot him to death. How many more people need to die or get shot before this ends? President Trump, I am calling on you to put the American people and this American city first & get ICE out."
What Happens Next
The White House said Trump would not back down from deportation efforts targeting “violent criminal illegal aliens,” while signaling coordination with Minnesota officials following his call with Walz.
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