Support for immigration slips but still relatively high: Gallup

Administration Support for immigration slips but still relatively high: Gallup Comments: by Max Rego - 07/09/26 2:54 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Max Rego - 07/09/26 2:54 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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A recent poll found support for immigration in the U.S. remains high, but lower than where it stood last year.

The Gallup survey, conducted from June 1 through 15, found that 73 percent of 1,001 respondents think immigration is a good thing for the country, while 21 percent said it is a bad thing.

The share of respondents who said immigration was a good thing was down 6 percent from a 2025 Gallup survey on the matter, but it was up 9 percent from 2024 and was higher than the 25-year average of 67 percent. The latest telephone survey had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

During his 2024 campaign, President Trump said he would help bring down the cost of living and embark on a widespread deportation campaign.

Once Trump returned to office, his administration carried out that agenda. From January to December 2025, administrative arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel rose by more than 220 percent, according to data compiled by the Deportation Data Project.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, also said in January the administration deported more than 675,000 undocumented migrants and 2.2 million more individuals left the country at their own accord during the president’s first year back in office.

But the Center for Migration Studies noted that same month the administration likely overestimates the number of undocumented migrants it deports.

“There is also no basis, no exit survey of the legal status of the entire flow of out-migration, to support the deceptive statement that the entire outflow consists of ‘illegal aliens,’” the center’s Edward Kissam wrote.

The decline in positive sentiment towards immigration in the Gallup poll is driven by a 14-point decline of Republicans who view it as a good thing and a 7-point dip in independents who view it that way.

The percentage of Democrats who viewed it positively, meanwhile, was unchanged from a 25-year high of 91 percent.

Partisan attitudes toward immigration have shifted greatly since 2001, when 65 percent of Republicans and 62 percent of Democrats told Gallup they view it as a good thing.

Even in 2006, 71 percent of respondents from both parties viewed it as a good thing. Yet over the last 20 years, Republican and Democratic views of immigration have diverged.

A March report by the Brookings Institution noted immigration positively affects the U.S. economy by expanding the labor force, increasing consumer demand and supporting overall gross domestic product growth.

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