ICE’s Nationwide Approval Rating Quietly Changes Direction - Newsweek

Immigration and Customs Enforcement's favorability rating has improved since the beginning of the year, but it remains underwater with American voters, according to a series of Harvard CAPS/Harris polls.

The findings come as the Trump administration continues to expand immigration enforcement nationwide, even as some of the highly publicized operations seen earlier this year in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis have receded from public view.

The latest Harvard CAPS/Harris survey, conducted August 28-30 among 2,100 registered voters, found that 39 percent viewed ICE favorably while 47 percent viewed the agency unfavorably, producing a net favorability rating of -8 percentage points—one of the better ratings the agency has received in the polling series this year.

In January, the poll recorded a -16 net approval rating, with 34 percent viewing ICE favorably and 50 percent viewing the agency unfavorably following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge.

The change is also three points better than the agency's -11 rating recorded in July, when 38 percent of voters viewed ICE favorably and 48 percent viewed it unfavorably.

While ICE's net favorability has improved since January's -16 rating, it has not been a steady climb.

Harvard/Harris recorded the agency's favorability rating as -8 in February, -11 in March, -6 in April, -9 in May, -11 in July and -8 in August.

The series' strongest reading—though still underwater—came in April, when ICE was 40 percent favorable and 46 percent unfavorable, for a net favorability rating of -6.

Alexander Kustov, an associate professor of migration at the University of Notre Dame, told Newsweek: "Most of this movement may just be a random survey error. With 2,100 respondents, the margin on a net favorability number is closer to plus or minus 4 points than the 2 the poll reports, and for the difference between two months, it is closer to 6.

"So a series bouncing between -6 and -11 is basically flat as far as I can tell. The one reading that looks like more than volatility is January, right after the Minneapolis shootings, but even that had basically reverted by February. My sense is that the issue is much less salient now than it was just a couple of months ago."

Julia Gelatt, an associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, told Newsweek: "To some extent, these changes in the net favorability rating might just be reflecting normal month-to-month polling variation. This poll says the margin of error for the full sample is +/- 2 percentage points, so a change from -9 to -11 or -8 to -6 might not be meaningful."

"But it seems likely that the especially negative views of ICE in January 2026 were generated by the heavy-handed enforcement operations in Minneapolis and other cities, and particularly the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti."

On January 7, an ICE agent fatally shot Good in Minneapolis. Later that month, in the same city, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Pretti.

Even with its August improvement, ICE remained one of the few institutions in the survey with a net-negative favorability rating. The agency's -8 rating trailed the Department of Homeland Security (+13), the Department of Justice (+12), the FBI (+23) and local police (+36).

It also remained slightly more unpopular than Israel (+2) and the European Union (+10), though it ranked ahead of the MAGA movement (-10), Democratic Socialists of America (-15) and socialism (-21).

Other surveys conducted earlier this year similarly found public skepticism toward ICE.

An Economist/YouGov survey conducted in late January, found 55 percent of Americans saying they had "very little" confidence in ICE, up 10 points from December. That survey followed Pretti's killing, with three-quarters of respondents beginning the survey after the shooting.

A PBS News/NPR/Marist poll released in February found that about six in 10 Americans disapproved of the job ICE was doing, while roughly three in 10 approved. Nearly two-thirds said ICE's actions in its immigration crackdown had gone too far.

Following the fatal shootings in Minnesota, the Trump administration announced that Operation Metro Surge was ending. White House border czar Tom Homan announced the planned end of the operation on February 12, saying the surge had accomplished its objectives.

Data reviewed by Reuters shows that immigration arrests have surged to record levels under President Donald Trump, with federal agents making almost 51,000 arrests in August alone. The Harvard CAPS/Harris polling suggests that despite the administration's aggressive immigration enforcement agenda, ICE continues to face net-negative public perceptions. Still, the agency's standing appears to have recovered from the decline recorded at the start of the year, even if recent month-to-month fluctuations remain within the margin of error.

"The general trend toward less negative views of ICE is likely related to the fact that since January, ICE arrests have been less visible and there have been fewer national reports of ICE agents using violent tactics in their operations," Gelatt said.

She added, "The July killings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Guerrero may have also increased negative attention toward ICE."

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and Shakeema Edwards.