RUTHFULLY YOURS

President Donald Trump’s actions since reclaiming the Oval Office to secure America’s borders, remove criminals and keep other illegal immigrants out are proving to be highly popular among American voters, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows. Even a significant share of Democrats support Trump’s policies.

If you’re looking for a reason why Trump won so handily against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, illegal immigration looms large. The online national I&I/TIPP Poll, taken from Jan. 29-31, asked 1,478 adults around the country four questions about Trump’s immigration policies and the actions he has taken so far. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.6 percentage points.

The first question: “Do you support or oppose Trump’s promise of large-scale deportations of illegal migrants?” By a roughly 3-to-2 majority, voters back this idea. The actual numbers: 57% say they support it either “strongly” (35%) or “somewhat” (22%), while just 35% oppose it “strongly” (22%) or “somewhat” (13%). Another 8% aren’t sure.

How does that split with regard to political affiliation? Republicans (85% support, 11% oppose) and independents (54% support, 37% oppose) both gave strong backing.

What about the Democrats? A solid majority oppose it, at 59%, but 31% (nearly one in three) support it. And that support likely comes from two pillars of the Democratic Party: black voters (43% support, 45% oppose) and Hispanic voters (46% support, 44% oppose).

So compared to the rest of the Democratic Party, the minority voting blocs lean far closer to the Republican-independent consensus than they do to the Dems.

If anything, these trends were strengthened in the remaining questions on immigration that I&I/TIPP asked.

In the second question, for instance, I&I/TIPP asked: “Do you support or oppose using the U.S. military to assist in immigration enforcement at the southern border?”

This was even more popular among voting-age Americans than the first question: Overall, 57% support, 34% oppose, and 9% not sure.

Once again, political alignment defines support or opposition. Republicans strongly support (85%) using the military on the border, versus only 11% opposing it. Indie voters line up at 54% support, and 34% oppose. Again, Dems flip the script, with 33% support, 59% oppose.

Also again, key elements of the Dems’ electoral coalition, black and Hispanic voters, are out of step with the rest of the party. Black voters support using the military on the border by 47% to 41%, a plurality, while Hispanics support it 51% to 38%, an actual majority.

In short, it seems it’s white Democrats who are mostly pushing against military border deployment.

How about the speed with which Trump has acted on his campaign promise to drastically cut illegal immigration into the U.S., especially across the southern border?

I&I/TIPP asked prospective voters: “Do you think using presidential emergency power to speed up deportations is justified?”

On this query, 42% responded “Yes, it’s necessary to enforce immigration laws effectively,” while 28% answered “No, it bypasses due process and legal protections.” Another 18% gave qualified support, with 18% saying yes but “Only in extreme circumstances, such as national security threats.” Of those remaining, 12% were “not sure.”

So the “yes” response to this question about using emergency powers gets a total of 60% of all respondents, when those who limit such action to “extreme circumstances” are added in.

Finally, we asked, “How effective do you think Trump’s immigration orders will be in reducing illegal immigration?”

Among all respondents, 61% said Trump’s orders would be “very effective” (33%) or “somewhat effective” (28%). Just 27% felt they would be either “not very effective” (15%) or “not at all effective” (12%), with 11% “not sure.”

A look at data by voters’ ideology, rather than party, race or other category, can be clarifying.

For instance, in the final question, 87% of self-described conservatives believe Trump’s orders will be effective, with just 9% saying they wouldn’t be effective.

Among self-described moderates, 59% agreed the orders would be effective, while only 29% said they wouldn’t. However, among those who call themselves liberal, a minority of 38% thought Trump’s moves would be effective, while 50% said they wouldn’t.

So solid majorities of the roughly two-thirds of the electorate believe Trump’s immigration moves would work. And even in the lowest group, liberals, nearly four in 10 respondents agreed with conservative and moderate groups.

Why such consensus on such a contentious issue?

It might be the fact that Trump is already having big success in sharply reducing the flow of illegal immigrants, a mere three weeks into his second term.

As the New York Post reported late last week, citing Customs and Border Protection data:

So far in February, about 359 illegal migrants per day have been caught across the entire southern border — down more than 90% from February 2024 . . . That puts the US on track to have the lowest monthly border crossings in at least 25 years. If the trend continues, the number of illegal migrants coming into the US could hit a level not seen since 1968, nearly 60 years ago.

Americans like to complain about government inefficiency. But when success comes, and it’s conspicuous on a major contentious issue such as immigration, it gets attention.

And that isn’t the only big success on the border under Trump.

The number of known “gotaways,” those who were seen crossing but not apprehended, has likewise plunged sharply to 132 a day on average, down 93% from the highs set during the Biden administration, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Under Joe Biden, the total number of gotaways in 2023 was 670,674, or roughly 1,800 a day.

Late last week, the D.C.-based Heritage Foundation asserted that “The Biden administration actively worked to facilitate mass migration using the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” including $59 million to put up illegal immigrants in New York luxury hotels. This was only “the latest payment in a four-year federal subsidy of sanctuary cities,” Heritage wrote.

Meanwhile, with a new majority in both houses of Congress, Trump is moving to investigate self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities” that defy federal law by harboring and subsidizing illegal immigrants.

But there are new revelations about how the previous administration encouraged the violation of U.S. immigration law by spending $22.6 billion of taxpayer money from 2020 through 2024 via Health and Human Services on cash aid for illegal immigrants, helping them to buy cars and trucks and start small businesses, according to the government transparency group OpenTheBooks.

If so, along with a host of other open-border policies, this would explain why there was such a flood of illegal immigrants during Biden’s term in office, more than 10 million by some estimates. As shown in the preliminary data above, that once running spigot has now been turned off.

As others have noted, Democrats’ “radicalism” on the immigration issue may well have cost them the 2024 election. Even liberal magazines and news outlets (here, here and here, for example) have lamented that the Democrats moved in a completely different direction on immigration than their voting constituencies did.

If so, Trump might have a winning record on immigration for the GOP to use in the 2026 midterm elections, now only a little more than a year-and-a-half away.

I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.

Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.