What Americans think of Trump's immigration policies | The Economist

I was stunned to see that a quarter of MAGA  voters think that ICE should be abolished. It's. remarkable, isn't it? And something like half  of all Americans think I should be abolished, which is held out to be an extreme program. It's  amazing. I think you see this kind of movement. where Donald Trump's ascent in politics was  propelled by this real dissatis dissatisfaction. with uh illegal immigration, particular  on the border, a sense that Democrats. did not have it under control. And he has  answered that with what has been, you know,

not as effective as he promised. You know,  America has 16 million illegal immigrants. Now he has not is not deporting all of them,  but is still remarkably effective. You know, the wall is being built, but it is still  the biggest federal construction project. since the interstate highway system.  That's insane. [laughter] You know, you have the wall being built, you have this  massive deportation program underway. You know, this is a very comprehensive set of things that  challenges America's economy. You know, I I do. think it's character and then what does that mean  for Donald Trump's own political career? You know,

the backlash to this and is there a prospect for  immigration reform coming off the back of it? His. approval ratings are low. That won't be news to  our viewers. His approval ratings have fallen a. lot on immigration, which in some senses is his  is his signature issue. You can see that when he. comes into office, he has a you know positive he  he's positive about 12 or 13%. Now he's down to. negative3. So that's that's a big difference.  It's worth saying for context that depending.

on who's in the White House, Americans views on  immigration and immigration enforcement change a. lot. So Joe Biden had very low immigration ratings  when he was in office. American voters thought the. Democrats weren't being sufficiently muscular on  immigration. Then they vote for Donald Trump. He. comes in, starts this very muscular policy. They  don't like that either, right? So you could take. from that that voters are confused and whatever  you give them they don't want. I think there's a. bit of that going on. But I think actually  the the real picture here is that neither.

party has offered American voters what they are  actually asking for if you look at the opinion. polls which is they want um illegal undocumented  migration under control. They want enforcement of. immigration laws without the kind of conspicuous  cruelty that we've seen in both of Donald Trump's. terms. and they want a pathway to citizenship and  they want a generous approach to legal migration. And that is not a formula that either party  has been offering for for a really long time.