President Donald Trump touts that tougher ICE enforcement is forcing violent criminal illegal immigrants out of the U.S., citing reverse migration, foreign prison releases and expanded metro raids. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
The president's approval on the issue stands at its lowest level in Reuters/Ipsos polling since Trump returned to the White House a year ago. In February of last year, weeks after his second inauguration as president, Trump stood at 50% approval and 41% disapproval on immigration, as he quickly shut down the flow of migrants across the nation's southern border with Mexico.
Illegal immigration, with Trump promising a massive surge in deportations of undocumented migrants, was a key issue that boosted Trump and the GOP to decisive ballot box victories in 2024, as they won back the White House and Senate and successfully defended their razor-thin House majority.
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But the fatal shootings of Renee Good, a mother of three, earlier this month, and nurse Alex Pretti this past weekend, as they protested aggressive actions by masked federal agents carrying out immigration operations, sparked national debate and demonstrations, further inflaming political tensions over Trump's mass deportation push.
A screengrab from a video shows a law enforcement officer spraying irritants at Alex Pretti before he was fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 24, 2026. (Reuters)
Videos of the shooting depict Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA Hospital, appearing to attend to a woman agents had knocked down when he was sprayed with an irritant, pushed to the ground and beaten. On the ground, bystanders said he was brandishing a cell phone rather than his weapon, and an agent was seen pulling Pretti's gun from his waistband before other agents fired several shots and killed him.
"The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting," Pretti's family wrote in a statement obtained by the AP. "Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you."
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Fifty-eight percent of poll respondents said federal immigration agents have gone "too far" in their crackdown, with 12% saying they had not gone far enough and 26% said the agents' efforts were "about right."
There was an expected wide partisan divide, with roughly nine in 10 Democrats and six in 10 independents saying the agents have gone too far, compared to just two in 10 Republicans.
Fox News Digital's Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/support-slipping-trump-immigration-push-majority-say-crackdown-goes-too-far-poll