ICE’s Approval Collapses in New Polls — 58% of Americans Want Kristi Noem Removed

AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Two new polls show a harsh assessment for the immigration policies of President Donald Trump’s administration, with a majority of Americans disapproving of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and supporting the ouster of Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

The tactics used during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown have been loudly criticized and sparked nationwide protests and multiple court challenges, especially after two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis: Renee Good on Jan. 7 by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 by Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

Recently, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino was removed from overseeing the operations in Minnesota and sent back to California, with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan sent to replace him. Noem’s announcement Monday that her agency would be “deploying body cameras to every officer in the field in Minneapolis…[e]ffective immediately” satisfied a key demand from protesters and Democratic members of Congress, but has failed to quell the ongoing anger and frustration at the administration’s immigration policies — as shown in an increasingly negative series of polls.

These two new polls, one by Quinnipiac taken from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 and one by Ipsos conducted Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, were highlighted in a report by ABC News’ Emily Guskin, who pointed out that support for ICE was “decaying even further” in the wake of Pretti’s death.

The Quinnipiac poll gathered responses from 1,191 registered voters nationwide, via live interviews on landlines and cell phones, and had a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage points.

In this poll, 63% of voters disapproved of how ICE was enforcing immigration laws and only 34% approved, a notable decrease from the already-underwater numbers from Quinnipiac’s poll in early January, where 57% disapproved and 40% approved.

Screenshot via ABC News.

Quinnipiac showed Trump’s own numbers were following a similarly downward trend. When poll respondents were asked if they approved or disapproved of how he was handling his job as president, the last three surveys (Oct. 22, 2025; Dec. 17, 2025; and Jan. 14, 2026) had the same exact responses: 40% approved, 54% disapproved, and 6% said they didn’t know or gave no answer.

In this latest poll, 37% said they approved of Trump’s job performance, 56% said they disapproved, and 7% said they didn’t know or no answer.

The partisan breakdown of those numbers may signal a warning sign for the GOP’s ability to win over moderate and crossover voters in the coming midterms. Unsurprisingly, Trump fared better with Republicans (86% approve, 10% disapprove, 4% don’t know/no answer) than Democrats (3% approve, 95% disapprove, 2% don’t know/no answer), but he got clobbered with Independents (31% approve, 58% disapprove, 11% don’t know/no answer).

Trump fared badly when voters were asked specifically about how he was doing on the economy (overall 39% approve, 56% disapprove, 5% don’t know/no answer) and immigration (overall 38% approve, 59% disapprove, 3% don’t know/no answer) with a similar partisan divide and the president once again way underwater with Independents (34% approve, 60% disapprove, 6% don’t know/no answer on the economy; and 31% approve, 65% disapprove, 4% don’t know/no answer on immigration).

Noem got arguably even worse ratings than the president in Quinnipiac’s poll, with 58% wanting her removed, 34% saying she should remain in her job, and 8% saying they didn’t know or no answer.

Quinnipiac asked some questions specifically about the Pretti shooting, and voters’ responses illustrate why the Trump administration’s polling numbers are getting worse. When asked if the administration was giving an honest account of what happened, 61% said they were not being honest and 62% said the shooting was “not justified.”

Independents were highly skeptical (65% said Trump administration was not being honest about the shooting and only 20% believed them); even 19% of Republicans said the administration was not being honest.

Screenshot via ABC News.

Ipsos’ survey polled 1,020 American adults across the country and had a margin of error of +/- 3.7 percentage points, and showed the same kind of negative and downward trend for opinions about the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement politics.

When asked about how ICE officers were dealing with undocumented immigrants, 62% said the agency was going “too far,” an increase from 58% who said they were going too far in a Reuters/Ipsos poll a week earlier. Republicans were also souring on ICE with 30% now saying ICE’s efforts were going “too far,” up ten points from the 20% in the earlier poll.

Americans were also highly critical of the Pretti shooting, Ipsos found, with 55% saying it was an excessive (55%) rather than necessary (16%) use of force, with 28% saying they were unsure.

Republicans judged the Trump administration harsher on the Pretti shooting than for other issues, with 33% saying it was a necessary use of force, 24% excessive, and a plurality of 43% saying they were not sure. The vast majority of Democrats (88%) said the shooting was excessive, and the feds were underwater with Independents yet again (54% said excessive use of force, 14% said necessary).

The Trump administration seems likely to struggle to shrug off the negative views of the Pretti shooting. Ipsos found that 89% of Americans said they had heard a lot or a little about it, with 67% saying they had watched video of the incident.

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