ICE gets even worse ratings in polling after Pretti's fatal shooting; majority calling for Noem's removal
New polling conducted in the days since Veterans Administration nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis finds support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) decaying even further, a majority of voters calling for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be removed and nearly half of voters saying they know someone who is living in fear because of the Trump administration's deportation policies.
A Quinnipiac poll released on Wednesday found that 63% of voters disapprove of the way ICE is enforcing immigration laws and 34% approve -- a lower rating than the agency received in a January Quinnipiac poll, when 57% disapproved and 40% approved.
An Ipsos poll released Monday found that 62% of Americans said current efforts by ICE officers to deal with unauthorized immigration goes "too far." That is up slightly from 58% who said the same in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted the week before. The share of Republicans saying ICE efforts go too far was up 10 points, from 20% to 30%.
The Quinnipiac poll found 58% of voters saying Noem should be removed from her job and 60% saying ICE should withdraw from Minneapolis. The polls were conducted before border czar Tom Homan announced on Wednesday a drawdown of 700 federal agents from Minnesota.
Nearly half of voters, 47%, said that they know someone who is living in fear because of the Trump administration’s deportation policies, according to Quinnipiac.
Reactions to Pretti’s shooting
In all, 62% of voters in the Quinnipiac poll said that the shooting of Pretti was "not justified," and 61% said that the Trump administration is not giving an honest account of the incident.
Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller quickly accused Pretti of domestic terrorism after Saturday's shooting without citing any evidence or conducting an investigation -- remarks Trump has distanced himself from. When asked by ABC News' Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott last week whether he agreed with his top advisers' assessment that Pretti was a "domestic terrorist," Trump claimed he hadn't "heard" that, but added, "I don't like that he had a gun. I don't like that. He has two fully loaded magazines. That's a lot of bad stuff."
The Ipsos poll found 55% of Americans saying Pretti’s fatal shooting was an excessive use of force, with 16% saying it was necessary. While most Democrats (88%) and independents (54%) said it was excessive, among Republicans, 33% said his shooting was a necessary use of force, 24% said it was excessive, and a 43% plurality said they were not sure.
Quinnipiac found about 6 in 10 voters saying the Trump administration has not given an honest account of Pretti's shooting, including majorities of Democrats and independents -- along with about 2 in 10 Republicans. Eight in 10 voters said there should be an independent investigation into the shooting.
Pretti's shooting came 17 days after the death of Renee Good -- the 37-year-old mother of three killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis last month.
About 6 in 10 voters, 59%, said the recent ICE-involved shootings in Minneapolis were a sign of broader problems in the way ICE was operating; 32% said they were isolated incidents. Over 9 in 10 said that ICE agents should be required to wear body cameras, about 6 in 10 said ICE agents should not be permitted to wear masks or other face coverings, according to Quinnipiac.
Trump’s immigration policies
The Quinnipiac poll found 59% of voters disapprove of how Trump is handling immigration issues while 38% approve; that’s a drop in approval from Quinnipiac’s December poll when 54% disapproved and 44% approved.
And a 56% majority of voters said that the Trump administration has deployed ICE agents in Minneapolis more for political reasons than for law enforcement reasons (37%).
Six in 10 voters said the Trump administration was being too harsh of its treatment of undocumented immigrations in the U.S. while 3 in 10 said the Trump administration was handling it about right and just 7% said the Trump administration was too lenient in its treatment of undocumented immigrants.
About half, 51%, said the Trump administration’s approach to immigration is making the country less safe while 35% said it was making the country safer.
And the Quinnipiac poll found roughly 6 in 10 voters (59%) prefer giving most undocumented immigrants in the United States a pathway to legal status; 34% prefer deporting most undocumented immigrants.
The Quinnipiac poll was conducted Jan. 29-Feb. 2 among 1,191 registered voters nationwide and has a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage points.
The Ipsos poll was conducted Jan. 30-Feb. 1 among 1,020 U.S. adults nationwide and has a margin of error of +/- 3.7 percentage points.
