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A majority of Americans say they have little or no confidence in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with most also saying they would like to see the agency defunded.
According to an Economist/YouGov poll published on Tuesday, just 30 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in ICE, while 55 percent say they have no confidence in the agency. Another 16 percent said they only had “some” confidence in ICE.
On funding for ICE going forward, 51 percent of Americans said they’d like to see funding for ICE decreased. Just 27 percent said funding should be increased, while 16 percent said funding levels should remain the same.
The poll also asked respondents their opinions on cutting other government programs and agencies, finding that cuts for ICE were more popular among voters than cuts to foreign aid, environmental spending, Medicaid/Medicare, and SNAP — all items that the administration has made cuts to over the past year.
The survey indicates deep frustration with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, especially in light of immigration agents’ brutality in the Twin Cities of Minnesota over the past month.
Earlier in January, ICE agents shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good, who attempted to drive away as agents surrounded her car, barking orders. While Trump falsely claimed she “ran over” an agent, analyses of several camera angles show that this is false.
This past weekend, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shot and killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti as he was attempting to help a woman who agents had shoved to the ground.
Following both killings, the administration baselessly disparaged the victims as “domestic terrorist[s].”
In just the past month, federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities have reportedly forcefully pulled people from vehicles, used children as “bait” to lure their family members out of their home, and teargassed a family with six children in their car, including an infant. In the wake of these actions, Trump’s image has diminished significantly, with his approval ratings tanking even lower than they were before “Operation Metro Surge” began in the state.
Indeed, in mid-February 2025, Trump’s net approval rating on the issue of immigration in general stood at +8 points, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Now, however, it stands at -14 points, a 22-point swing over a period of just under a year.
The fallout from Trump’s immigration policies has prompted the president to remove CBP commander at large Gregory Bovino from overseeing operations in the Twin Cities, and to sideline some of his prominent advisers on the issue. But despite Trump’s claims that he will “de-escalate” the situation in Minnesota, he has not outlined a plan for doing so and has spent much of the week deriding Democrats in the state.
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