President Donald Trump has lost ground on immigration, a new poll from /Ipsos has found. The poll showed that 40 percent of registered voters said that Republicans had the better approach on immigration policy, compared to 38 percent who chose Democrats. That percentage point spread is the lowest of Trump’s second term in office.
By contrast, Republicans led by 26 points in January 2025, after Trump was inaugurated. The White House has consistently rejected the idea that Trump’s approval numbers reflect weakness in his presidency. However, the second term has seen a number of high-profile issues related to immigration, including deadly confrontations, a rise in deaths in custody and a surge in detainees, including children, impacting public opinion on overall policy.
The /Ipsos poll was conducted online over four days and published on August 17. It included responses from 1,166 U.S. adults nationwide. It had a margin of error of 3 percentage points in either direction.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email. When Trump returned to office in January of 2025, 48 percent of Americans approved of his handling of immigration, according to Ipsos polling. Hardline immigration policies were key in Trump’s successful bid for re-election in 2024, when he promised to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out what he described as the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
By June of that year, /Ipsos polling showed a four-point drop, down to 44 percent. In June of 2025, widespread protests broke out in Los Angeles after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided locations in the region. Those protests marked the most significant resistance to Trump’s immigration policy at the time.
In response, Trump federalized the California National Guard and called for 2,000 guard members to deploy against the city under Joint Task Force 51. The move was widely criticized at the time, including by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who sued Trump over the federalization. Newsom said that local law enforcement was already mobilized and said the presence of the National Guard was "purposefully inflammatory" and would "escalate tensions.” The anti-ICE protests in L.A. inspired similar action in other cities, including New York City, Chicago and Dallas.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
