Americans hold mixed views on President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.
Voters are divided on sending migrants living in the United States lacking legal status who are accused of gang membership to an El Salvador prison without a court hearing but mainly oppose deporting international students who criticize U.S. policy in the Middle East, according to the poll.
In the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant who was deported to El Salvador despite a court order prohibiting it, more respondents said he should be returned to the U.S. rather than remain imprisoned in El Salvador, 42-26%. There’s room for movement; 3 in 10 in an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released Friday said they don’t know enough about the case to say.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant in this handout image obtained by Reuters on April 9, 2025.
Abrego Garcia Family via Reuters
Overall, 46% said they approve of the way Trump is handling immigration, while 53% said they disapprove. On one hand, that’s a 4-point drop in approval from a Washington Post/Ipsos poll in February. On the other, it’s Trump’s best rating across seven issues tested in this survey, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, with fieldwork by Ipsos.
There’s about an even division, moreover, on Trump’s efforts to deport undocumented immigrants in general. Forty-eight percent said Trump is “going too far” in this regard, while 50% said he’s either handling it about right (34%) or not going far enough (16%).
There’s also a close split on the deportation of suspected gang members to an El Salvador prison without a court hearing: Forty-seven percent said they support this action, while 51% said they opposed.
That result underscores animosity toward undocumented immigrants, as seen in contrast to views on deporting international students who have criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East: In this case, support for deportation drops to 39%, with 59% opposed.
Partisans
Partisanship is a strong factor.
About 9 in 10 Republicans said they approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 1 in 10 Democrats said they approved. Among independents, 45% said they approve.
Trump also wins approval on immigration from 93% of his 2024 voters, compared with 8% of those who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris. However, he falls well short among those who didn’t vote for president in the 2024 elections, who disapprove of Trump on immigration by 59%-40%.
Salvadoran prison guards escort a man as the alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the MS-13 gang recently deported by the U.S. government are to be imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison, in Tecoluca, El Salvador April 12, 2025.
Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia via Reuters
In another broad partisan gap, 85% of Democrats said they think Trump is “going too far” with deportations. Sixty percent of Republicans said they think he’s handling this about right — and 27% said he’s not going far enough. Independents again fall in between.
Republicans’ attitudes are not monolithic. Eighty-two percent said they support sending suspected gang members to a prison in El Salvador without court hearings. Fewer, but still 70%, said they support deporting international college students who are critical of U.S. policy in the Middle East. Fewer still, 53%, said Abrego Garcia should remain in El Salvador, though just 14% said they favor his return, with the rest unsure.
Hispanic people said they disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration overall, by 67%-32%. Men divided about evenly on the issue, while most women said they disapprove, 58%-41%. Approval on the issue ranges from 65% of people in rural areas to 45% in suburbs and 36% in cities, with sizable rural and suburban gender gaps.
And there’s a gap by age: Fifty-nine percent of those younger than 40 said disapprove of Trump on immigration, while 48% of those age 50 and older said they disapprove.
Methodology: This ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll was conducted online via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel® April 18-22, 2025, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 2,464 adults. Partisan divisions are 30%-30%-29%, Democrats-Republicans-independents.
Results have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, including the design effect. Error margins are larger for subgroups. Sampling error is not the only source of differences in polls.
The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, with sampling and data collection by Ipsos. See details on ABC News survey methodology here.