Last week, Senate Democrats voted to fund TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard – but refused to write a blank check for ICE and Border Patrol without reforms. House Republicans rejected that bipartisan deal, tied DHS funding to an anti-voter bill, and headed home for a two-week recess.
Meanwhile, the shutdown continues – and this week, Trump made his strategy clear: fund ICE and Border Patrol for the next three years through a party-line reconciliation bill that only requires a simple majority, thus bypassing Democrats entirely, with no reforms and a June 1 deadline. Trump and Stephen Miller want to lock in their mass deportation agenda with zero accountability, and Americans aren’t buying it.
Here’s what the record shows:
Trump’s Approval Is Collapsing — And His Immigration Agenda Is a Leading Cause
The latest polling reveals a clear verdict: the American people are rejecting Trump’s mass deportation agenda — and his approval ratings are paying the price.
- On March 30th, three polls told the same story: Trump’s approval has collapsed to 33% (UMass), 36% (Reuters/Ipsos), and 36% (The Economist).
- According to a March 26 PRRI survey, only 35% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of immigration – down from 48% in March 2025. Nearly half (48%) hold very unfavorable views.
- A significant and growing percentage of Americans (44%) say in an Economist/YouGov survey that they have no confidence in ICE at all, up from 38% in October.
- A majority (54%) say in a Navigator survey that the government is spending too much on ICE, including a plurality of Fox News viewers (42%). ICE’s budget has ballooned from less than $10 billion to more than $80 billion in just one year.
Americans Want Reform, Not a Blank Check
The public isn’t just souring on ICE and Border Patrol – they’re demanding specific, concrete accountability measures.
- 75% of Americans – including 57% of Republicans – say ICE officers should be required to wear uniforms identifying them as ICE, according to a new Economist/YouGov survey.
- An Economist/YouGov survey also finds that 59% say ICE agents should not be allowed to wear masks that hide their faces.
- According to a KFF Health poll, the majority of Americans are concerned with ICE and Border Patrol arresting and/or detaining individuals in health care settings (63%) and health care professionals sharing patient immigration status with ICE or Border Patrol (59%).
- When Americans took to the streets on March 30 for No Kings Day protests nationwide, the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown was front and center.
The Agenda Is Already Devastating American Communities and the Economy
The costs are showing up everywhere – in farm fields, neighborhood businesses, and communities living in fear.
- ICE has arrested and detained people with no criminal convictions or pending charges at a staggering rate: from just 6% of all arrests in January 2025 to 44% last month, nearly 26,000 people.
- The fear is changing how communities live and do business. One in five Hispanic adults told Pew pollsters they changed their daily activities out of fear – and during the height of ICE and Border Patrol activity in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, business owners reported 50–60% drops in sales compared to the prior year.
- America’s farms are taking a direct hit. More than 14% reported worker shortages from raids and enforcement anxiety, while Louisiana’s $300 million crawfish industry faces collapse from H-2B visa shortages. On top of that, Trump’s H-2A wage cuts will slash farmworker pay by nearly $3 billion annually, up to 9% of their total wages.
- In the Bay Area alone, mass deportations could cost $67 billion in annual GDP — the economic output of a small country.
- According to two senior DHS sources, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ordered federal agents to be dispatched to areas of Minneapolis to “force confrontations” with anti-ICE protesters – an order that may have directly sparked the encounter that killed American citizen and VA ICE nurse Alex Pretti.
But Republicans Are Doubling Down
Despite collapsing public support, Republican leadership and the White House are escalating, not retreating.
- At the White House briefing on March 30, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made the administration’s position crystal clear: despite a new DHS Secretary, “there has not been a change in policy.”
- When the Senate passed a bipartisan deal to fund most of DHS, Trump rejected it outright, saying “you can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund ICE.”
- Rather than accept any reforms, House Republicans are now pursuing a two-track strategy: passing the Senate’s partial DHS bill while separately pushing a party-line reconciliation package to fund ICE and CBP with no accountability measures attached — and Trump wants it on his desk by June 1.
- When asked whether ICE agents would leave airports once TSA workers began receiving paychecks again, Border Czar Tom Homan replied: “We’ll see.”
The bottom line: ICE/CBP should not receive one more penny without serious reforms. In fact, Congress should reclaim funding from their slush fund and redirect it toward what Americans actually need right now: relief from soaring costs and access to affordable healthcare, housing, education, and other essential services.
