Trump’s policies have made the US an unwelcoming place for immigrants, new poll finds

Trump immigration policies alienate 68% of foreign-born residents, poll shows

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Nearly 7 in 10 foreign-born U.S. residents view the country as unwelcoming under President Trump’s second-term immigration crackdown, according to survey results released Tuesday.

The 68% unfavorability mark among immigrants is the highest recorded since Gallup began tracking the metric in 2001, surpassing the previous peak of 57% during Trump’s first term.

The findings land as federal agents expand workplace raids and speed deportations under executive orders signed during Trump’s opening weeks. Immigration courts reported a 40% surge in removal cases since January 20, straining a system already facing a 3.2 million-case backlog.

Latino immigrants registered the sharpest negative swing, with 74% calling America less welcoming than a year ago, up from 49% in December, researchers at the Pew Research Center found. Asian-born residents followed at 65%, while European and African immigrants posted 61% and 58% respectively.

“Numbers this bleak signal a fundamental shift in how America projects itself,” said study director Mark Hugo López, who oversaw interviews with 4,508 foreign-born adults across 14 languages. “We’re hearing phrases like ‘cold shoulder’ and ‘closed doors’ repeat across focus groups.”

The White House dismissed the survey as “predictable activist noise.” Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that lawful immigrants “have nothing to fear” and pointed to record-high naturalization approvals in January. She provided no figures to support the claim.

Immigration attorney Sofia Martínez in El Paso said her phones ring daily from green-card holders asking whether to abandon renewal applications. “These aren’t undocumented people. We’re talking nurses, truck drivers, military spouses,” she said. “Fear has gone mainstream.”

Trump signed 11 immigration-related orders during his first 30 days, reinstating travel bans on 12 nations and ending humanitarian parole programs that admitted 1.4 million people under former President Joe Biden. A separate directive orders federal agencies to refuse housing assistance to mixed-status families, affecting an estimated 1.2 million households.

Border Patrol agents apprehended 124,000 migrants in April, the lowest monthly total since 2020, Department of Homeland Security data show. Administration officials credit the drop to what they term “deterrence through policy clarity.”

Yet the polling suggests deterrence cuts both ways. Among U.S.-born citizens, 52% support Trump’s current approach, but that approval slips to 41% when respondents learn a close immigrant relative could be affected, researchers noted.

Canada’s immigration minister, Marc Miller, cited the U.S. mood in announcing a 35% increase in his country’s skilled-worker quota for 2026. “Talented people have options,” Miller said Monday. “We’re seeing a measurable uptick in American-based tech workers exploring Toronto and Vancouver.”

Background

Trump campaigned on promises to stage “the largest deportation operation in American history,” invoking a 1798 wartime statute known as the Alien Enemies Act to fast-track removals without court hearings. The law lay dormant since World War II until his administration invoked it last month against Venezuelan nationals.

During Trump’s first term, immigrant sentiment cratered after the 2017 travel ban and 2018 family-separation policy. Gallup measured a partial rebound in 2021 after Biden rolled back those measures. The current slide erases those gains and then some.

Immigrants account for 14% of U.S. residents, or roughly 46 million people, Census Bureau figures show. They pay an estimated $525 billion in annual taxes and represent 18% of the civilian workforce, concentrated in agriculture, construction and elder care sectors.

What’s Next

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in October on whether the administration can strip Temporary Protected Status from 600,000 longtime residents from Sudan, Haiti and Nicaragua. A ruling against the White House could force policy revisions, though Trump has vowed to seek congressional action if necessary.

The findings pose longer-term economic questions as birth rates decline and 10,000 Americans retire daily. Labor economists warn that deterring immigration could shave 0.4 percentage points off annual GDP growth, compounding worker shortages in health care and agriculture already flagged by the Federal Reserve as inflation risks.