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Immigration poll shows growing support for restrictions, but deep divisions remain

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Immigration poll shows growing support for restrictions, but deep divisions remain

Members of the U.S. Marine Corps patrol the U.S.-Mexico border area as seen from San Diego on Feb. 7.

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Americans are deeply divided when it comes to the details of President Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration, according to a new NPR/Ipsos poll.

The poll shows growing approval for restrictions on immigration, like expanding the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. And a plurality of respondents say they support Trump’s call for mass deportation of all immigrants living in the U.S. without legal status.

But at the same time, the White House’s most dramatic moves — detaining migrants at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, pushing to end birthright citizenship for all children born in the U.S. and allowing immigration authorities to make arrests in schools and churches — are broadly unpopular with Democrats and independents, even as they’ve been welcomed by most Republicans.

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“Americans on the whole may be more supportive of immigration restrictions in theory,” said Mallory Newall, a vice president at Ipsos, which conducted the poll for NPR. But in practice, she says, “there’s still not a lot of agreement about what that looks like.”

Immigration often ranks as a bigger concern for Republican voters than for others, and this poll is no exception: 47% of Republicans describe immigration as a top issue, compared with 19% of independents and only 9% of Democrats.

Overall, 23% of poll respondents ranked immigration as a top-tier issue — a larger share than in previous polls but still lagging far behind the top concern, “inflation and increasing costs,” at 47%.

The president’s supporters have largely welcomed his first steps to restrict illegal and legal immigration. In the Trump administration’s first weeks, it has ramped up arrests of immigrants without legal status, suspended admissions of refugees and asylum-seekers at the southern border and rolled back legal protections for more than a million recent migrants from South and Central America.

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Nearly 1 in 3 poll respondents said that recent restrictions on immigration “go too far,” while a similar proportion (29%) said the restrictions “do not go far enough.”

For the most part, Republicans stand united behind the White House’s immigration agenda. Three out of 4 support denying federal funds to sanctuary cities that limit their cooperation with immigration authorities; nearly as many back using the U.S. military to arrest and detain immigrants without legal status.

Four out of 5 Republicans support deporting all immigrants without legal status and characterize the record numbers of recent migrant encounters at the southern border as an invasion.

“So as far as I’m concerned, that was an invasion. It was not an armed invasion, certainly, but it was an invasion,” said poll respondent Thomas Dunkelberger, a longtime Republican voter from western Michigan, in a follow-up interview. “And that’s got to stop. We can’t afford it as a people.”

But the poll shows that some Trump voters have doubts about his immigration policies.

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“I think he’s done a good job because we definitely do need to close the borders,” said poll respondent Maria Rose Pawlyk in a follow-up interview.

Still, Pawlyk worries that the White House is cutting off legal pathways for refugees and other immigrants who deserve humanitarian protections. And she does not support deporting all of the estimated 12 million immigrants living in the U.S. without legal status.

“There’s no easy answer to it,” said Pawlyk, who considers herself a political independent and says she voted for Trump. “You can’t just give a blanket statement of saying deport everyone, ’cause you can’t.”

Perhaps none of Trump’s executive actions has met with more opposition than his push to end birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants who don’t have permanent legal status in the United States.

According to this poll, less than a third of Americans support that proposal, which has been blocked for the moment by several federal judges.

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“It just seems like a fundamental right,” said poll respondent Morgan McGee, a Democratic voter from southwest Louisiana. “If you are born here, regardless of where you came from, you should be a U.S. citizen. Like, that is just the end of it, you know?”

The White House’s push to detain immigrants without legal status at the U.S. naval station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is also unpopular. Only 36% of poll respondents approved, although the idea is much more popular with Republicans.

The poll also reveals some broader shifts in public opinion about immigration over time.

When NPR and Ipsos began asking about building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018, only 38% of Americans supported the idea. That figure has gradually grown over time, to nearly half in our latest poll.

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At the same time, support for DREAMers — immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children — has steadily declined. Seven years ago, nearly two-thirds of Americans favored giving them legal status. Now, that figure has declined to less than half for the first time.

“That, to me, is telling of the overall mood that the country is in right now,” said Newall, of Ipsos.

“But many of these newer proposals being pushed by the administration are a bridge too far. Yes, they are supported by the Republican base. But they are not supported by the American public,” she said.

The NPR/Ipsos poll was conducted from Feb. 7 to 10, 2025, with a sample of 1,013 adults online. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points for all respondents.

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Donald Trump has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday in different ways. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees were notified of their terminations via email from ​the White House presidential personnel office.

“On ‌behalf of President ‌Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position ‌as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email, seen by Reuters, said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a “national clearinghouse of information on election ‌administration”, accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website. The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials’ advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

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“It is ⁠irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on ​causing chaos for ​our election officials across this ​country,” Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes said in a ​Thursday statement. “This ‌move undermines the integrity ​of nonpartisan ​election administration.”

The 2002 law that established the commission, the Help America Vote Act, states the president can appoint replacements to the commission.

It is unclear how Trump will move ahead with the commission.

Reuters contributed reporting

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn (left) walks with his attorney Norman Eisen to speak to reporters and protesters gathered after his arraignment at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

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Former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning.

Federal prosecutors charged Hearn with a single count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn has previously claimed, which his attorneys repeated during a short press conference outside the court, that he simply touched the water in the pool out of curiosity.

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The Trump administration had just completed a $14 million renovation of the pool.

But shortly after the work finished, peeling paint and algae gathered in the water. The remodel has been largely criticized as a massive failure and waste of taxpayer dollars.

Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean released Hearn on his own recognizance. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, spoke to reporters outside of court following the hearing. He said the administration is using Hearn as a “scapegoat … for their own failures.”

“It is not a crime to touch the reflecting pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” he said.

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Prosecutors say there is a host of evidence against Hearn.

This is a developing story.

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

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Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

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The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

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