Only Nixon could go to China, and maybe only Trump can finally get a polarized Congress to
pass real immigration reform. Who knows whether he will try, but the opportunity is there, as
public opinion shifts in response to the President’s border success and mass deportation efforts.
“With illegal border crossings down sharply this year, fewer Americans than in June 2024 back
hard-line border enforcement measures,” Gallup said Friday, “while more favor offering
pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.” Only 30% of
Americans now favor decreasing immigration, down from 55% amid President Biden’s border
mess.
Asked if immigration is good or bad for the country, 79% of U.S. adults say good, which is
Gallup’s record high. Offering citizenship to “Dreamers,” those brought to the U.S. illegally as
children, is favored by 85%, up four points in the past year. By the way, that includes 71% of
Republicans and 85% of independents.
Overall support for “deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally” has
fallen to 38%, down nine points. This may signal a public backlash amid news reports about
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s nationwide raids on workplaces and public spaces that
have led to protests. Americans want a country of laws and opposed President Biden’s open-
borders chaos. But they also are compassionate, don’t want to break up families, and shrink from
harsh roundup tactics.
As is often the case in such polling, public opinion isn’t without contradictions. A majority of
Republicans (77%, compared with 84% last year) continue to say that they want mass
deportation of all illegal aliens—even as they strongly support letting Dreamers stay. Also, 59%
of Republicans tell Gallup that they favor an even more broad “path to citizenship for
immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.”
One takeaway is that the details matter, and Mr. Trump has plenty of room to draw distinctions.
Doing something for Dreamers is overwhelmingly popular, and the President has said in the pastthat he wants to help them. Swiftly deporting migrants who have committed serious crimes is
surely also overwhelmingly popular, no public survey needed. But many illegal immigrants are
neither Dreamers nor criminals. They might be farmworkers or roofers, trying to escape Cuba or
Venezuela.
The details of any big beautiful immigration bill would take some negotiating. But if anybody
has established the immigration credibility to try, it’s Mr. Trump.
The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2025