Immigration Poll: Plurality Have Favorable View of ICE
A plurality approve of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the latest weekly survey from the Economist/YouGov found.
The survey, taken June 6-9, 2025 — just as the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots broke out — asked 1,533 respondents, “Do you have a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)?”
Across the board, a plurality, 45 percent, said they have a favorable view of ICE. Another 43 percent said they have an unfavorable view, and 12 percent are not sure.
Predictably, options vary sharply along party lines, as 79 percent of Democrats have an unfavorable view of ICE — a view shared by only 11 percent of Republicans. Most Republicans, 81 percent, have a favorable view of ICE, while just 11 percent of Democrats agree with them. Independents are virtually split, as 41 percent have an unfavorable view of ICE, and 40 percent have a favorable view.
This same survey found that Trump has a net +4 percent approval on his handling of immigration.
The poll’s margin of error is +/- 3.5 percent. It comes as Democrat leaders continue to blame the Trump administration for civil unrest in their cities. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the ICE operations — which have targeted criminal illegal aliens — should “not be happening in our city.”
“It is not warranted, and it does anything — the only thing it does is contribute to chaos,” she said. “This was chaos that was started in Washington, DC. On Thursday, the city was peaceful. On Friday, it was not because of the intervention of the federal government.”
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said in response that her rhetoric is “the definition of insurrection.”
As rioters continue to act out, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has provided lists of some of the illegal immigrants arrested through their operations in LA, along with their criminal histories. For example, illegal immigrant Eswin Uriel Castro has convictions including “child molestation and being armed with a dangerous weapon,” per DHS, which also noted he has been arrested for robbery and domestic violence. He has also previously been deported.
Other criminal histories — which can be found here and here — include willful cruelty to a child, assault with intent to commit rape, sexual battery, grand theft larceny, possession of a prohibited weapon, and much more.
