President Donald Trump’s push for aggressive immigration enforcement has divided public opinion weeks before the midterm elections on November 3. A national poll found that 53 percent of registered voters believe the immigration crackdown has “gone too far.”
The poll, conducted in September, found the figure was even higher among groups that could be decisive for the Republican Party in November. Sixty percent of independent voters agreed that Trump’s immigration efforts have overreached, and two-thirds of Hispanic respondents said the campaign had gone too far.
Debate shifts toward how enforcement is carried out
Experts say the immigration debate in the United States has changed since the last major election in 2024. At that time, the focus was largely on border security. Attention has increasingly moved to the way enforcement operations are being conducted.
Cynthia Penaloza is one of those questioning the administration’s tactics. In August, her sister, 23-year-old Joceline Penaloza Magana, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas. Joceline remains in custody.
“We’re always afraid. We’re uncertain of what’s going to happen,” Cynthia said, voicing worry about whether her sister would be sent back to Mexico and whether the family would be reunited.
Cynthia rejects Trump’s assertion that enforcement operations are targeting “the worst of the worst.” According to the Penaloza family, Joceline was an honour roll student with no criminal record. She was brought to the US as a young child, at about five years old.
Administration links mass deportations to crime
The Trump administration has tied its mass deportation campaign to efforts to control crime. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, credited the president’s policies with directing ICE at serious criminals, including people accused of murder, rape and gang membership.
Immigration arrests have risen under Trump. In September, ICE said it had recorded two consecutive months with more than 50,000 immigration arrests. That surpassed a record set in June, when 43,900 people were detained.
Homeland Security has argued that about 70 percent of its immigration detainees are criminals when pending charges are included. Critics have questioned that figure. The US legal system presumes suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and many of those accused could be acquitted or see their charges dropped. A large share of those facing charges may also be accused of non-violent offences.
Analysts have found that most people currently in immigration custody are not considered criminals under the law. The Deportation Data Project, which analyses government data sets, says some 70 percent of people held in ICE detention have no criminal record.
The administration has nonetheless pushed to increase detentions. In an interview in July, Tom Homan, the White House “border czar,” said: “We need more. We need more arrests, and we need more deportations.”
Republicans and Democrats split on enforcement ahead of vote
The arrest tactics could have consequences for the Republican campaign. The party is seeking to defend its majorities in both chambers of Congress, as well as key state and local races.
Trump made significant gains with Hispanic voters in 2024. According to an exit poll cited by the Pew Research Center, he received nearly 48 percent support among Latinos, up 12 percentage points from the 2020 election. Pew found those gains may be fading. Among Hispanic voters who backed him in 2024, his approval rating fell from a high of 93 percent at the start of 2025 to 57 percent as of last week.
Some Republicans running in the midterms have openly criticised the president’s hardline approach. Congress member Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida said in an advertising campaign launched in September: “Mr President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.” She pointed to the large number of immigrants arrested without a criminal record.
Other Republicans blame previous administrations for the conflict over enforcement. Jeremy Price, a Republican in Texas, told a correspondent: “A mess was created, and now cleaning it up is dirty business.” He added that officers “are having to find people, arrest them against their will and remove them from the country because they don’t want to leave.”
Democrats hope to turn the public anger over enforcement tactics into votes in November. Richard Gonzales, chair of the Hidalgo County Democratic Party in Texas, said in an interview: “I would hope they’d abolish ICE.” He added that, in his view, the agency “has just lost its identity, and there’s no way to rehabilitate that.”
