Americans Still Want Reduced Immigration From Non-EU Countries

Despite controversy earlier this year following two deadly immigration enforcement encounters in Minneapolis, immigration and crime remain among President Donald Trump’s strongest issues. The latest polling indicates that even after a year and a half of Trump’s restrictive immigration agenda, Americans still favor reducing legal immigration, especially from non-EU countries.

In the latest Economist/YouGov poll, taken July 3-6 with 1,603 U.S. adults, 31% said legal immigration should be decreased or reduced to zero, while 23% said it should be increased and 32% said it should remain unchanged.

Norway was the only country included in the poll where support for increasing immigration exceeded support for decreasing it, 19% to 17%. Views on Italy were evenly split, with 17% favoring an increase and 17% favoring a decrease.

China and Mexico produced a much more negative response. For China, 38% said immigration should be decreased or reduced to zero, nearly three times the 13% who said it should be increased. For Mexico, 34% favored a decrease, twice the 17% who favored an increase.

The poll also asked about Temporary Protected Status, a temporary humanitarian immigration protection allowing eligible people already in the U.S. to remain in the country when their home country is considered unsafe because of war, natural disaster, epidemic, or other extraordinary conditions. In a 6-3 decision at the end of June, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could move forward with ending Temporary Protected Status for people from Haiti and Syria, reversing lower court decisions that had previously blocked the terminations. The Trump administration has ended or moved to end Temporary Protected Status for 13 of the 17 countries that had the designation when Trump took office.

Thirty-six percent said immigration from Haiti should be reduced, and 39% said immigration from Syria should be reduced. Only 15% said immigration from Haiti should be increased, while 13% said the same of Syria. However, just 26% said people from those countries who were granted TPS should be deported, while a majority, 51%, said they should not be deported.

Birthright citizenship has also been in the news after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s executive order seeking to restrict automatic citizenship for some children born in the U.S., ruling that the order violated the 14th Amendment. According to the poll, 56% agreed with birthright citizenship, while 37% disagreed, saying only children whose parents are citizens should automatically be granted citizenship.

However, when asked specifically about undocumented immigrants coming to the U.S. and giving birth, only 39% said those children should automatically be granted citizenship, while 47% opposed it. Similarly, only 28% said the children of tourists should automatically be given citizenship. Americans were much more supportive of granting citizenship to the children of those in the United States on a more long-term basis, including those on visas or those with refugee or asylum-seeker status, with 48% and 65% in favor, respectively.

On immigration overall, Trump is suffering somewhat from his own success. Since taking office, he has largely shut down the border, with apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border down 94% from the average during the Biden administration. While his approval on the issue remains negative, Trump performs significantly better on immigration than on other issues, with a net approval rating of -7.1 points.

However, despite Trump’s relative strength on immigration, the issue has declined in importance as the border has become less chaotic and deportations have begun. At the time of the 2024 election, immigration was the second-most important issue to voters, according to Economist/YouGov, with 13% saying it was their top issue, behind only inflation/prices. Now, only 7% rate it as their top issue, behind inflation, health care, and jobs and the economy.