April 25, 2025
Trump continues to garner more public approval on immigration than other issues including the economy. Forty-six percent of adults say they approve of Trump’s approach to immigration policy while 53% disapprove. The public gives Trump higher marks for his handling of immigration than the economy (37%) or trade negotiations (37%). Republicans strongly support how Trump has been dealing with immigration, while most Democrats and independents disapprove.
Half the public feels Trump’s deportation policies have gone too far, while the other half feel his actions have either been about right (32%) or haven’t gone far enough (18%). Republicans tend to feel the president has acted appropriately in deporting immigrants living in the United States illegally, while most Democrats think he has gone too far.
There is not a strong public consensus on specific immigration policies. When it comes to sending Venezuelan immigrants who the U.S. claims to be gang members to a prison in El Salvador, the public is split with 4 in 10 each supporting and opposing the policy. Similarly, 4 in 10 each support and oppose deporting all immigrants living in the United States illegally.
There is more opposition than support for revoking student visas based on participation in pro-Palestinian action. It’s the least popular policy among those included on the survey. About half of Republicans favor the policy. Trump’s other immigration policies garner much more support from his party.
One in 5 adults are quite concerned that they or someone they know will be impacted by increased immigration enforcement. Another 25% are somewhat concerned and about half are not worried. But concern is much higher in the Hispanic community with a third of Hispanic adults very or extremely concerned about personal impacts and another 24% somewhat concerned.
The nationwide poll was conducted April 17-21, 2025 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,260 adults. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 3.9 percentage points.
- Suggested Citation: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “Immigration remains one of Trump’s strongest issues” (April 2025). https://apnorc.org/projects/trumps-first-100-days/
