Americans have mixed opinions about the immigration policies of President Donald Trump, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos survey.
Voters are divided into sending migrants living in the United States who lack legal status that are accused of gang membership to a prison in El Salvador without a judicial hearing, but they are mainly opposed to international students who criticize the policy of the United States in the Middle East, according to the survey.
In the case of Kilmar Abrego García, a migrant who was deported to El Salvador despite a court order that prohibits him, more respondents said he should be returned to the United States instead of remaining imprisoned in El Salvador, 42-26%. There is space for movement; 3 in 10 in an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos The survey published on Friday said they don’t know enough about the case to say.
Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran migrant in this booklet image obtained by Reuters on April 9, 2025.
Abrego Garcia Family Via Reuters
In general, 46% said they approve the way Trump is handling immigration, while 53% said they disapprove. On the one hand, that is a 4 -point drop in the approval of a Washington Post/Ipsos survey in February. On the other hand, it is the best Trump qualification in seven problems tested in this survey, produced for ABC News by Langer Research AssociatesWith field work by Ipsos.
There are also a uniform division, in addition, in Trump’s efforts to deport undocumented immigrants in general. Forty -eight percent said Trump is “going too far” in this regard, while 50%said they are handling it correctly (34%) or does not go far enough (16%).
There is also a close division in the deportation of alleged gang members to a prison in El Salvador without a court in the court: forty -seven percent said they support this action, while 51% said they opposed.
This result underlines the animosity towards undocumented immigrants, as seen in contrast to the opinions about deporting international students who have criticized US politics in the Middle East: in this case, support for deportation falls to 39%, with an opposite 59%.
Partisans
Party is a strong factor.
Around 9 out of 10 Republicans said they approve Trump’s immigration management, while 1 in 10 Democrats said they approved. Among the independents, 45% said they approve.
Trump also gains the approval of the immigration of 93% of his 2024 voters, compared to 8% of those who voted for former vice president Kamala Harris. However, it falls short among those who did not vote for the president in the 2024 elections, which disapprove of Trump by immigration by 59%-40%.
The saving prison guards escort a man when the alleged members of the Venezuelan Gang Train of Aragua and the MS-13 gang recently deported by the United States government will be imprisoned in the prison of the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), in Tecolluca, El Salvador on April 12, 2025.
Press Secretary of the Presidency Via Reuters
In another wide partisan gap, 85% of the Democrats said they think Trump is “going too far” with deportations. The sixty percent of the Republicans said they think they are driving this well, and 27% said it does not go far enough. Independents again fall in the middle.
Republican attitudes are not monolithic. The eighty -two percent said they support to send alleged gang members to a prison in El Salvador without judicial hearings. Less, but even 70%said they support international university students who criticize US policy in the Middle East. Even less, 53%, said Abrego García, should remain in El Salvador, although only 14% said they favor their return, and the rest is not sure.
Hispanic people said they disapprove of Trump’s immigration management in general, in 67%-32%. The men divided evenly on the subject, while most women said they disapprove, 58%-41%. The approval of the issue varies from 65% of people in rural areas to 45% in suburbs and 36% in cities, with large rural and suburban gender gaps.
And there is a gap by age: fifty -nine percent of those under 40 said that it disapproves of Trump for immigration, while 48% of those over 50 said they disapprove.
Methodology: This ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos survey was held online through the probability Ipsos KnowledgePanel® from April 18 to 22, 2025, in English and Spanish, between a random national sample of 2,464 adults. Party divisions are 30%-30%-29%, indicators of democrats-republican.
The results have an error margin of more or less 2 percentage points, including the design effect. Error margins are larger for subgroups. The sampling error is not the only source of differences in surveys.
The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associateswith sampling and collection of data by Ipsos. See the details about the ABC news survey methodology here.
