Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign is facing growing resistance among his own supporters, with non-MAGA Trump voters more than twice as likely as MAGA voters to say the policy has gone too far.
Polling conducted by London-based Public First found that 31% of non-MAGA Trump voters considered the campaign too aggressive, compared with 14% of self-identified MAGA voters. While similar proportions said the policy was about right, 36% of MAGA voters wanted the administration to go further, compared with 23% of other Trump voters.
The findings point to divisions within the coalition that helped deliver Trump two presidential victories. Although his most loyal supporters remain more inclined to back a tougher immigration approach, the results suggest limits to support for deportations beyond serious offenders.
Support strongest for targeting serious offenders
Majorities of Americans, including both MAGA and non-MAGA Trump voters, said people convicted of serious violent or sexual offences should be prioritised for deportation.
Support was considerably weaker for targeting people convicted of minor offences, those who have lived in the United States for several years without legal status, or people with dependent children in the country.
A person close to the White House said Republicans did not want amnesty for people who had broken the law, but recognised that some unauthorised immigrants were “law-abiding, hard working”.
The survey also found support for maintaining or increasing the number of workers admitted to the US in sectors facing labour shortages, including healthcare and agriculture. Some 65% of MAGA Trump voters and 69% of non-MAGA Trump voters backed keeping numbers at about the same level or raising them.
Matt Barreto, who conducted polling for Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign, said voters had wanted greater order and security at the US-Mexico border rather than a campaign against immigrants who were working and contributing to the country.
“There was extremely limited support for that,” he said.
Republican candidates distance themselves from raids
The tensions have become increasingly visible ahead of November’s election. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican representative from Florida, recently released an advert saying parts of Trump’s deportation effort “have gone too far” and that Hispanic voters who backed him in 2024 “feel betrayed”.
Salazar’s district is being targeted by Democrats as they seek to take control of the House. She later said she had a “fantastic conversation” with Trump and urged him to protect the political “fortune” he had built for the Republican Party on immigration.
She has argued that the administration should distinguish between criminals and unauthorised immigrants working in industries such as agriculture, construction, hospitality and healthcare.
Other Republican candidates have also sought to put distance between themselves and the administration’s enforcement tactics, despite having voted to approve billions of dollars for border security and immigration enforcement.
Roger Marshall, the Republican senator for Kansas, softened his position on Immigration and Customs Enforcement after raids in south-west Kansas prompted temporary closures of businesses and schools.
“When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement,” he wrote on social media. “Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe.”
Marshall said he had been in direct contact with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
The polling follows months of concern among battleground Republicans that high-profile raids and clashes with protesters were alienating moderate Republicans, independents, younger voters and Latinos who supported border security but objected to how enforcement was being carried out.
The administration later moderated its language and moved away from the most conspicuous raids. Mullin was installed at the Department of Homeland Security and moved to repair relations on Capitol Hill while keeping the department out of the headlines.
However, immigration hardliners and MAGA critics have accused Mullin of failing to support Trump’s pledge to deport millions of unauthorised immigrants. In response, senior administration accounts, including Mullin’s, have increased posts about ICE arrests, statistics and the president’s enforcement agenda.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis rejected the poll’s interpretation, accusing its authors of “skewing data to paint a false narrative”. She said Americans had returned Trump to the White House to “stop the invasion of our country and deport the millions of illegal aliens Biden and Democrats allowed into the country”.
