Voters Oppose Calls to Abolish ICE, Favor More Aggressive Deportations

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Removal Operations (ERO) agents arrest an illegal alien sex offender in Long Island, New York as part of Operation SOAR. (Photo: Courtesy of ICE)

Voters overwhelmingly oppose Democrats’ calls to abolish ICE, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and more say the U.S. is “not aggressive enough” deporting those who are in this country illegally.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that only 25% of likely voters favor abolishing ICE, while the majority (55%) are opposed. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided.

The growing number of elected officials in the Democratic Party calling for abolishing ICE are even at odds with a plurality of voters in their own party. While a sizable 36% of Democrats favor the idea to abolish ICE, 20% are unsure and 44% are opposed.

Those calls are far outside of the mainstream.

Among voters not affiliated with either party, 53% are opposed, just 20% favor the idea and 26% are unsure. Only 18% of Republicans agree, while 69% do not. White and black voters are equally opposed (56%), though slightly fewer black voters (22%) favor the idea than whites (24%). Voters of other races aren’t keen on the idea, either.

Only 33% favor the idea to abolish ICE, while 49% are unopposed.

That’s undoubtedly due to voters thinking the federal government needs to be even more aggressive deporting illegal immigrants.

When asked if the U.S. government was too aggressive or not aggressive enough in deporting those who are in this country illegally, 46% say the U.S. is “not aggressive enough.” Only 33% say the U.S. government is “too aggressive” and another 13% say “the number of deportations is about right.”

The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on June 27-28, 2018 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.