STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The president won a second term amid widespread demand for more immigration enforcement. Now that he is in office and acting, is the pendulum swinging back? NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro has been looking at the polls. Domenico, good morning.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey, good morning.
INSKEEP: Have views of the president's immigration policies changed this year?
MONTANARO: Well, when Trump first took office, immigration was one of his strengths, and that makes sense. There had been a lot of people coming across the southern border illegally during the Biden administration, and during the presidential election, polling showed people felt it was a pretty serious problem.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
MONTANARO: A year ago, in Gallup's polling, 55% of people said that they wanted immigration decreased, but that trend toward a harder line on immigration has sharply reversed. Our polling with PBS NewsHour and Marist, for example, showed Trump with just a 43% approval rating for his handling of immigration. People said that they believed America's openness to immigration is essential to what the country is. And that question about whether people wanted immigration decreased, Gallup now finds that just 30% say that they want to do that. So that's a 25-point decline. So yeah, things have changed.
INSKEEP: Wow, and that's not one of those within the margin of error tweaks...
MONTANARO: No (laughter).
INSKEEP: ...Of a number. What accounts for such a drop?
MONTANARO: Well, largely, Gallup found that it's because of Republicans. In their polling, they went from almost 9 in 10 thinking immigration needed to be decreased to now only about half saying that. Meanwhile, the number of Republicans thinking immigration should stay at the same rate is up. Independents also dropped by 20 points in thinking immigration should be decreased, and now the plurality of them think that it should be kept at the current level. So why? A couple of points here. One, you know, Republicans decline likely in part because they're happy with Trump being in charge, think he's doing a good job, and are happy with the progress on the steep decline in the levels of people coming to the U.S. But it's also a warning sign for Trump that he's in danger of going too far for a lot of people, including many Republicans. You hear a lot of these stories, like we highlighted this morning, 54% of respondents in our polling overall said ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is already going too far in enforcing immigration laws.
INSKEEP: OK, that's very interesting. As people have seen this campaign unfold, they've been satisfied with the results, but then concerned about how far they're going. However, among all the different groups of voters, you have Trump's base voters, his core supporters who he listens to a lot. What clues do you see about them?
MONTANARO: Yeah, there are a few things here. I mean, and it's kind of nuanced. Republicans have moved more in favor of things like a pathway to citizenship for people in the country already and not convicted of crimes. There's significant jump in this. Six in 10 Republicans, in fact, say in Gallup's polling that they're in favor of that, which is up from less than half who said so last year.
INSKEEP: Wow.
MONTANARO: Beyond Trump's base, overall, almost 8 in 10 say they're in favor of a path to citizenship, and fewer people are in favor of deporting everyone in the country illegally than they were during the campaign. But three-quarters of Republicans still do say that they're in favor of deporting everyone. And it's just a reminder that, for all the debate, though, around immigration, very little is actually being done to fix a problem where there does seem to be considerable bipartisan support for a lot of different solutions. And remember, it was 2013 that a comprehensive immigration overhaul of the system was approved with 68 votes in the Senate - failed in the House because of conservative pushback. And this current Senate looks very different than it did then. So you're seeing, ideologically, looking a lot more like the House. There's very little political will from elected Republicans to do anything of consequence right now, and elected Republicans, in particular, certainly don't want to cross Trump.
INSKEEP: Domenico, thanks for your insights. Really appreciate it.
MONTANARO: Appreciate it. Thank you.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Domenico Montanaro.
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