A plurality of Americans feel the country’s immigration policies have improved since President Donald Trump took office, according to a new poll.
The Center Square Voter’s Voice poll released Thursday showed that 47% of those surveyed say federal policy on immigration and border security has “gotten better,” compared to 32% who say it has “gotten worse.”
The poll found that 13% say there has been no change, and 8% are unsure.
The same poll found that 42% of registered voters say Trump’s border policies are “just right,” while 8% say they are “too soft.” Meanwhile, 46% say the policies are “too harsh.”
The Center Square’s Voter’s Voice poll, conducted with Noble Predictive Insights from April 15-18, queried 2,527 registered voters. Of those respondents, 1,089 were Republicans, 1,187 were Democrats, and 251 were “True Independents,” which are independents who do not lean to one party or the other. The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll is one of only six national tracking polls in the United States.
Notably, Americans’ focus on immigration has declined as the border crisis has subsided. The Center Square’s poll found that only 26% of registered voters cite immigration as one of their top three most important issues. During last year’s presidential campaign, voters cited the border crisis with inflation as their top issues.
In March 2024, The Center Square’s poll found that 44% of Americans cited illegal immigration as one of their top 3 concerns.
“One of our most striking findings: Immigration has gone from a top tier issue to a second tier issue,” David Byler, head of research at Noble Predictive Insights, which conducted the poll, told The Center Square. “People trust Trump on border security. They think he’s doing a solid job, so they’re thinking about the border less and focusing on other issues. In a funny way, Trump could take his best issue off the table. If people think he’s solved the border crisis, they’ll stop thinking on it – and start judging him on issues where he doesn’t poll quite as well.”
Trump kicked off a nationwide deportation effort led by Border Czar Tom Homan, though a flurry of legal challenges have threatened to slow or even stop that progress.
“In the first 50 days of the Trump Administration, Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) has made 32,809 enforcement arrests,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in March. “To put this figure into perspective, in the entire fiscal year 2024, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations made 33,242 of these at-large arrests.”
Besides deportations, Trump has taken steps to prevent illegal aliens from receiving federal benefits and to shut down the border.
Illegal immigration at the southern border has plummeted since Trump took office.
“Trump is at his most popular when he’s taking action on immigration,” Byler said. “He cares about this issue more than almost any other – and people can tell. This is especially true on border security. He understands where the public is on ideas like the wall and illegal immigration. And, as the chief executive, he can make a lot of changes without having to fight Congress. It’s not hard to see why this is his best issue in our poll.”
Immigration was a top issue for the president on the campaign trail. He repeatedly promised to carry out the largest deportation effort in history and blasted his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, for her work on immigration during the Biden administration, when illegal immigration exploded to unprecedented levels.
Trump also fares well on the transgender issue, with a plurality saying the federal policies on that issue have improved. That was another major campaign issue for Republicans, who criticized Democrats for allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports.
On other issues, Trump does worse. For instance, tariffs and free speech are both areas where respondents said things have gotten worse.
The survey has a +/- 2.0% margin of error.
