How do Americans feel about immigration?

US Government

Jan 24

Source: New York Times/Ipsos poll of 2,128 U.S. adults from Jan. 2-10, 2025 | Chart excludes those who said they didn’t know or didn’t answer.

Critical Analysis

Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:

According to the visual above, what portion of Americans think the U.S. should deport immigrants who are here illegally and have criminal records?
According to the visual above, what portion of Americans think the U.S. should deport all immigrants who are here illegally?
The unauthorized immigrant population in the United States grew to 11.0 million in 2022, according to Pew Research Center estimates based on the 2022 American Community Survey, the most recent year available. Since 2022 the number of unauthorized immigrants has increased and is estimated to be roughly 3.3% of the total U.S. population. How do you think the increase in unauthorized immigrants has impacted American public opinion towards immigrants?
Dissatisfaction with the level of immigration in the United States helped President Trump win the presidency. Some of the biggest failures of Trump’s first term happened when he defied public sentiment. On immigration, an outcry caused him to reverse his family-separation policy in 2018. Explain whether American public opinion, as measured in the poll above and in the poll below*) will allow President Trump to carry out the mass deportations he has promised.
During Barack Obama’s eight years as president, the federal government deported more than three million people. Progressive critics taunted Obama as “the deporter in chief,” but American voters liked his moderate immigration policy — which favored both a pathway to citizenship and tough border security — much more than they liked Biden’s - which allowed large numbers of unauthorized immigrants during the first part of his presidency. Biden was forced to withdraw from running for reelction and only served one term in office. How do you think the immigration policy of these presidents impacted their popularity?
Dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s relatively open immigration policies — especially among working-class voters, across races — helped Trump win the election. This week, dozens of congressional Democrats joined Republicans this week to vote for the Laken Riley Act, which would require the deportation of undocumented immigrants charged with burglary, theft, assaulting a police officer or other crimes. The House passed the bill last night, after the Senate had done so Monday, setting it up to become the first law Trump will sign in his second term. Explain how the numbers from the polls above and below* impacted the Democratic support for the Laken Riley Act.
When Biden first came to office immigration surged. How much do you think Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy will impact the number of people attempting to come to America?
Based on the visual below*, if you were an advisor to President Trump, what is one policy you would recommend that Trump take to try to make his policy more aligned with public opinion, and what is one policy you would advise him not to take?
About 4.4 million U.S.-born children under 18 live with an unauthorized immigrant parent. They account for about 84% of all minor children living with their unauthorized immigrant parent. Altogether, about 850,000 children under 18 are unauthorized immigrants in 2022. In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, Trump said he thought the children of unauthorized immigrants should be deported alongside their parents - even if they were born in the US. "I don't want to be breaking up families," Trump said last December. "So the only way you don't break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back." How do you think deporting parents of American kids will be viewed by the American public?
On his first day back in office, President Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship - the legal right to citizenship for all children born in a country's territory, regardless of parentage. Three days later a federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump’s executive order that aims to restrict automatic citizenship to babies born on U.S. soil, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.” How does this illustrate the concept of checks and balances?

Write and Discuss

Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.

Act on your Learning

Complete this lesson: Can Trump End Birthright Citizenship?

Get Creative

A found poem is a poem made by rearranging words, phrases, or passages from another text. Found poems are created by selecting language that is interesting or meaningful to the poet, and then organizing it around a theme or message. Use the words from today’s lessons to make a found poem about immigration. Remember, a poem can rhyme but it doesn’t have to. Also,you may be a poet and you just don’t know it.