A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows American approval of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy has fallen to its lowest point since his return to the White House, with a majority of respondents saying his crackdown has gone too far. The nationwide survey, conducted Friday through Sunday, captured public opinion before and after immigration officers killed a second U.S. citizen in Minneapolis during confrontations with protesters over Trump’s deployment of federal agents to cities across the country.

Just 39% of Americans said they approve of the job Trump is doing on immigration, down from 41% earlier this month, while 53% disapproved. Immigration had been a stronger area of support for Trump in the weeks following his January inauguration, when a Reuters/Ipsos poll in February found 50% approval and 41% disapproval. Trump won the 2024 presidential election after promising a historic surge in deportations, and masked federal immigration officers in tactical gear have become a common sight in several cities, sparking protests and clashes that have turned deadly in Minneapolis.

American approval of President Trump's immigration policy fell to its lowest level since his return to the White House in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, with a majority of Americans saying his crackdown on immigration has gone too far https://t.co/qnAAIyJQNw pic.twitter.com/LYI4payfY1

— Reuters (@Reuters) January 26, 2026

The poll found 58% of respondents believe U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has gone “too far,” while 12% said they had not gone far enough and 26% said the agents’ efforts were “about right.” Nine in ten Democrats said ICE had gone too far, compared with two in ten Republicans and six in ten independents. The violent confrontations, captured in widely shared video clips, have caused concern among Republican lawmakers, many already confronting voter frustration over rising prices ahead of the midterm elections in November, when control of Congress and most governorships will be decided.

The crackdown has already affected politics in Minnesota, where leading Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Madel dropped out of the race, citing the federal operations as a reason the election was unwinnable for a Republican.

Trump’s overall approval rating in the poll fell to 38%, tying the lowest point of his current term, down from 41% in a Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted January 12-13. Despite the decline, Trump continues to outperform his predecessor, Joe Biden, on immigration. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said Republicans have the better approach to immigration, compared with 32% favoring Democrats, while the remainder said they were unsure or thought neither party was better. The poll surveyed 1,139 U.S. adults online and carries a margin of error of roughly three percentage points.