Immigration enforcement is driving voters away from the Republican coalition.

Sixty-nine percent of U.S. adults agree that the Trump administration is “focusing too much on deportations and not focusing enough on fixing the economy, inflation, and the rising cost of living.” The view spans the electorate: 87% of voters who did not back Trump in 2024 agree, along with 77% of his 2024 voters who have since left the coalition and 32% of those who remain loyal.

Asked which issues matter most to their vote in 2026, Americans put inflation and the cost of living first (26%), followed by democracy and elections (15%), jobs and the economy (14%), and deportations and immigration enforcement (12%).

Enforcement costs Republicans more voters than it wins.

Forty percent of Americans approve of the administration’s handling of deportations while 57% disapprove. Among Trump’s own 2024 voters who have left the coalition, 32% approve and 65% disapprove. Thirty-five percent of Americans say immigration enforcement makes them less likely to vote Republican, against 26% who say more likely; ICE deployments to cities produce the same 35–25 split.

Approval of the administration’s handling, U.S. adults

Issue	Approve	Disapprove
Border security	50%	46%
Deportations and immigration enforcement	40%	57%
Jobs and the economy	39%	57%
Inflation and the cost of living	31%	65%

One in seven of Trump’s 2024 voters has left the coalition.

Roughly 14% of 2024 Trump voters now say they will vote for a Democrat for Congress or are unsure and not leaning Republican. Asked why their opinion changed, these defectors cite the economy and cost of living first (49%), Trump’s personal conduct and rhetoric second (34%), ICE deployments to cities third (32%), and immigration enforcement and deportation policies fourth (27%). Defectors are younger than loyal Trump voters (median age 40 vs. 54), more diverse (54% White non-Hispanic vs. 76%), and more urban (64% in urban or suburban areas vs. 51%).

Large majorities support a path to citizenship.

Seventy-two percent of Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the U.S., with 44% in strong support. A path to legal residency under the same conditions draws 71%.

The Republican Party’s image has deteriorated.

A majority of Americans (51%) view the Republican Party less favorably than a year ago; 17% view it more favorably. The Democratic Party’s image is also negative on balance, at 38% less favorable versus 20% more, a significantly smaller decline. One-third of Americans (33%) say they would view the Democratic Party more favorably if its leaders pressed the administration to reduce federal agent deployments to cities.

A Minnesota companion survey shows a metro gap.

A parallel survey of 800 Minnesota adults, fielded over the same February 6–10 window with a margin of error of ±3.5 points, finds Twin Cities residents more disapproving of the administration than Minnesotans statewide on every issue tested, with the widest gap on deportations. Statewide, 44% of Minnesotans say immigration enforcement makes them less likely to vote Republican; in the Twin Cities metro the figure is 51%. On ICE deployments to cities the split is 45% statewide and 53% in the metro. The Minnesota memo includes regression models testing how much of the metro gap is explained by 2024 vote choice.

Methodology

The national survey was fielded online February 6–10, 2026 among 1,500 U.S. adults aged 18 and older. Fielding and weighting were performed by Verasight, a member of the AAPOR Transparency Initiative. Data are weighted to the December 2025 Current Population Survey on age, race/ethnicity, sex, income, education, region, and metropolitan status, as well as to a running three-year average of partisanship from the Pew Research Center NPORS benchmarking surveys and population benchmarks of 2024 vote. The margin of sampling error is ±2.5 percentage points. The Minnesota survey covers 800 Minnesota adults over the same field window with a margin of error of ±3.5 points; Twin Cities estimates use an MSA-specific weight calibrated to the seven-county metro population. Full question wording and crosstabs are in the files above.