Poll: Americans say the White House has shifted its deportation campaign. They’re still not buying it.

Poll: Americans say the White House has shifted its deportation campaign. They’re still not buying it. - POLITICO

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The POLITICO Poll

Poll: Americans say the White House has shifted its deportation campaign. They’re still not buying it.

New results from The POLITICO Poll show that half of Americans, including nearly a quarter of Trump’s 2024 voters, still say the president’s mass deportation campaign is too aggressive.

!Image of detainees at Krome Detention Center run by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement collaged with a federal agent patrolling the hallways of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building and a participant during in an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rally outside of the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center.

*Illustration by Anna Wiederkehr/POLITICO (source images via Getty)*

By Myah Ward and Erin Doherty

08/19/2026 05:00 AM EDT

Republicans are struggling to reverse the damage President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda has done with voters.

With less than 90 days until the midterm election, the Trump administration has sought to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials out of the headlines, pulling back on the high-profile, flashy raids in blue cities and minimizing public clashes with community members and protesters.

But new results from The POLITICO Poll show that half of Americans, including nearly a quarter of Trump’s 2024 voters, still say the president’s mass deportation campaign is too aggressive. That’s virtually unchanged from polling numbers in January and April, amid mounting political outrage over federal agents killing two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

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This article is part of an ongoing project from POLITICO and Public First, an independent polling company headquartered in London, to measure public opinion across a broad range of policy areas.

You can find new surveys and analysis each month at politico.com/poll.

Have questions or comments? Ideas for future surveys? Email us at [email protected].

Non-MAGA Trump voters are twice as likely as self-identified MAGA voters to say the president’s mass deportation campaign is too aggressive — 31 percent compared with 15 percent, according to the new poll, which was conducted Aug. 8 to Aug. 12.

The persistence of that negative voter sentiment underscores a vulnerability for Republicans heading into November, as the party grapples with its message and policy approach on an issue the GOP once dominated. Immigration was a reliable winner for Republicans, with the party rallying voters around border security and public safety. Now, they’re struggling not only to convince persuadable voters, but also hold together their own coalition as it splinters over deportations.

“Voters really did want border security, but they did not want to see abuelita taken away because she’s been here for 40 years but without documentation,” said Arizona-based GOP strategist Barrett Marson.