Majority of Americans Now Support Trump’s Mass Deportation Plans [WATCH]

CNN’s senior data reporter Harry Enten highlighted on Wednesday a significant shift in American attitudes towards illegal immigration since President Donald Trump first took office in 2017.

According to an October 2024 ABC News poll, 56% of American adults now support deporting all illegal immigrants, marking a notable increase from 42% in 2015 and 36% in 2016.

“This is where I think you get very interesting, so we’ll take a look at that ABC News question in particular, and you can really see that there’s been a massive shift from when Trump was first getting into office 8 years ago … You go back to 2015, it was 42%. Go to 2016, it was 36%. Look at where we are now,” Enten stated.

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He further noted, “This was taken at the end of last year, 56%. This is 20 points higher than it was just before Trump got into office the first time. So feelings towards immigration in this country, feelings toward undocumented immigrants and deporting all of them have become considerably more hawkish and I think it gives Donald Trump much more leverage to go with the American people and sort of have these hawkish, some might say harsh, different rhetoric and issue-based of going after immigrants who are here illegally.”

Enten suggested that this shift in public opinion could provide Trump with significant support for his immigration policies, stating, “So I think the American people are going to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt in doing what he wants to do, at least if you believe these blunt questions, including this one.”

The surge in public opinion coincides with a historic increase in migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border during former President Joe Biden’s administration, which saw approximately 8.5 million encounters over four fiscal years.

A 2024 Gallup poll also reflected this growing sentiment, showing that 55% of Americans now wish for immigration levels to decrease, up from 38% in 2016 and 41% in 2023.

“So the bottom-line is, more folks want people here illegally deported and their overall feelings towards immigration has become more hawkish since Donald Trump was first getting into office,” Enten added.

WOW

CNN was just forced to admit that a majority of Americans support deporting illegal immigrants.

We are so back! pic.twitter.com/2zqtyXzuZG

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) January 22, 2025

Further corroborating these findings, polls conducted by The New York Times, Marquette University, ABC, and CBC News found that between 55% to 64% of Americans support the deportation of all illegal immigrants.

Since taking office again on Monday evening, Trump has signed 11 executive orders focused on immigration.

These include declaring a national emergency at the border, ending birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants, ordering the reconstruction of the border wall, and reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy.

The Trump administration also reversed two Biden policies that had restricted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities in “sensitive locations” like churches and schools.

Additionally, the administration announced a return to case-by-case humanitarian parole, moving away from the broader application implemented by Biden.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson stated that criminals, including murderers and rapists, will no longer “avoid arrests” in these sensitive locations.

In response to these changes, Congress has acted quickly to pass The Laken Riley Act, which mandates the detention of illegal immigrants who commit theft-related crimes and allows states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for damages caused by illegal migrants to American citizens.

This act was named in honor of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student murdered by Jose Ibarra, an illegal migrant from Venezuela with a criminal record.

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