Are Trump's deportations hitting pro-immigration headwinds?

While Donald Trump’s overall approval ratings are declining and he’s losing ground on some issues where he has always gotten high marks, such as the economy, immigration remains one exception: The latest CBS/YouGov poll, at the end of March, shows that 53% of Americans approve of his handling of immigration and an even higher 58% support his program to deport immigrants here illegally. But could this change, and could Trump critics change it by highlighting deportation abuses?

Despite continued approval for Trump on this issue, public opinion may be shifting in a pro-immigration direction — as it did during Trump’s first term. Last summer, 47% of Americans in a Gallup poll said they favored deporting all immigrants who were in the United States illegally. In a Pew Research Center poll in late February and early March, only 32% expressed that view.

Americans’ views of illegal immigration have always been more nuanced than polarized partisan rhetoric would have us believe, as the Pew poll confirms. Nearly everyone — 97% — wants to deport people who are in the U.S. illegally and have committed violent crimes, a group Trump and his supporters single out in their rhetoric. Specify nonviolent offenses, and support drops to 52%. While people tend to be more supportive of deporting recent arrivals than those who have been here a long time, fewer than half — 44% — agree with the blanket statement that those who came here illegally less than four years ago should be deported.

But add more specific conditions, and support for deportation plummets. Only 15% of Americans want deportation for immigrants here illegally who have a job, while 14% support it for those who have children born in the U.S. A paltry 9% want to deport those who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. And just 5% would deport an illegal immigrant married to a U.S. citizen.

Despite harsh nativist rhetoric, Americans as a group are still sympathetic to people who earn an honest living, have family ties in the U.S., and have been here long enough to establish roots in American society. Many don’t realize how hard it is for such people to legalize their status. The popularity of Trump’s anti-immigration message rests partly on misconceptions promoted by far-right propaganda, which emphasizes violent gang members and rare, tragic cases in which U.S. citizens like Georgia college student Laken Riley are murdered by immigrants here illegally.

Yet while the Trump administration has claimed that it prioritizes deporting violent criminals, many stories in the news suggest otherwise. A 50-year-old Texas woman who came here from El Salvador at the age of 11, and is the mother and grandmother of U.S. citizens, is currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody fighting deportation — despite being previously allowed to stay here while her asylum petition is considered. In a particularly wrenching case, a couple from Mexico that has lived here for more than a decade has been deported with their 10-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, who has been undergoing treatment for brain cancer.

Meanwhile, much-publicized deportations of Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador have netted several legal asylum-seekers whose alleged gang membership rests on dubious and flimsy evidence including supposedly suspect tattoos.

Will such stories shift American opinion against Trump on the issue of immigration? In the current blitz of news, it is difficult for reports of official abuses and human tragedies to break through. But one must have faith that eventually, America’s humanity will prevail.

Opinions expressed by Cathy Young, a writer for The Bulwark, are her own.

By Cathy Young

Cathy Young is a writer for The Bulwark.