The legacy media would have us believe that the vast majority of Americans, including many 2024 Trump voters, are having second thoughts about deporting illegal aliens and would even support abolishing ICE.
Cygnal released a new national survey on Monday that suggests the opposite is true. The polling firm, highly respected for its accuracy by statistician Nate Silver and The New York Times, found that Americans support deporting those in the country illegally by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, 61% to 34%.
The poll also shows:
- 73% say entering the U.S. without legal permission is breaking the law.
- 54% want ICE enforcing federal immigration laws and removing illegal immigrants.
- 58% oppose defunding ICE—including majorities of Independents and swing voters.
Cygnal CEO and Founder Brent Buchanan said, “Voters see illegal immigration as a simple question of law and order. The data leaves no wiggle room. Americans want the law enforced, they want illegal immigrants removed, and they punish politicians who try to block ICE from doing its job.”
The survey found that calls to defund ice are “politically toxic. When voters are told Democrats want to defund ICE or even shut down the government to stop ICE from enforcing immigration law, the political fallout is immediate and severe.”
- The generic ballot flips from D+4 to R+0 if Democrats oppose ICE.
- If Democrats force a shutdown to defund ICE, Republicans take a 2‑point lead; that’s a 6-point shift away from Democrats over a single issue.
- Swing voters shift a staggering 16 points toward Republicans under a shutdown scenario.
The results indicate that Democrats do not view illegal immigration as a “serious national problem.”
But nearly all Republicans (97%) and 60% of Independent voters see it as a major problem. Overall, 64% of midterm voters and 71% of swing voters agree.
According to Cygnal, the GOP “holds the high ground” and if they continue to emphasize the clear distinction between Republicans and Democrats on this issue, they will gain votes.
Cygnal concluded:
- Voters reward candidates who support deportation and ICE enforcement.
- Democrats’ attempts to weaken or defund enforcement agencies push voters decisively toward the GOP.
- The electoral math is clear: immigration is a winning issue for Republicans, and a losing issue for Democrats.
[Note: The poll surveyed 1,004 likely 2026 midterm voters January 27–28, 2026, by phone and “text-to-web” and has a margin of error of ±3.09%.]
Democrats and the legacy media have leaned hard on the narrative that the January shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis have dampened voters’ enthusiasm for deportations and even ICE itself. At the risk of reading too much into a single poll, these results suggest that, as is often the case with leftist narratives, reality tells a different story.
It appears that most Americans understand that the U.S. is a nation governed by laws, and that elected city and state leaders do not have the authority to exempt their jurisdictions from federal law. The Biden administration’s reckless refusal to enforce federal immigration laws allowed at least 10 million illegal aliens to enter the country. This has undermined public safety and strained public resources.
Legacy media outlets have claimed that Americans, confronted with what they frame as the cruelty of deportations and the so-called “murders” of Good and Pretti, are increasingly turning away from policies they once supported.
But Americans aren’t stupid. The public has watched the media’s attempts to gin up nationwide outrage get debunked by reality within 24 hours. Recall the stunning video that surfaced last week of Pretti spitting at federal agents and kicking out the taillight on their vehicle in a rage just 11 days before his death. And despite the fact that Good went to extraordinary lengths to impede a federal law-enforcement operation — blocking ICE vehicles, sounding her horn for minutes on end, dancing, and ultimately striking an agent with her car — the media tried desperately to present her as an innocent figure and ICE officers as villains. Absent from their coverage was any mention of the radical anti-ICE activist group, MN ICE Watch, to which Good belonged.
The post below highlights several pages from the group’s training manual.
The results from Cygnal contradict the media spin, showing that public attitudes remain far more stable — and far less malleable — than their reporting suggests.
In the end, the survey reinforces a reality that much of the legacy media continues to obscure: Americans have not abandoned their commitment to the rule of law. Voters may be capable of sympathy, but they are not confused about authority, legality, or responsibility. Deportation and immigration enforcement are not viewed as acts of cruelty by most Americans, but as necessary functions of a sovereign nation. While media narratives attempt to manufacture a moral and political turning point, the data shows the public remains clear-eyed, consistent, and unmoved.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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