• ICE enforcement disapproval rose in our February 2026 wave across every partisan, age, and gender group. Overall disapproval rose from 52.9% to 59.2% nationally (+6.3 pts), while approval fell from 32.6% to 29.6% (-3.0 pts). Among Independents, ICE disapproval surpassed 64%, rising +5.6 pts.

• Approval of Trump’s immigration handling fell from 37.4% to 35.6% nationally (-1.8 pts), while disapproval became an absolute majority at 54.4%, up +5.6 pts. Even among Republicans, disapproval of Trump’s immigration handling rose +3.4 pts.

•The 55 and over age group showed the largest enforcementdisapproval increases of any age cohort. Notably, ICE disapprovalrose +8.3 pts to 58.9%, and Trump immigration disapproval rose+7.7 pts to 54.3%. These are counter-intuitive findings given olderAmericans’ historically stronger immigration enforcement support.

•Men showed significantly lower levels of enforcement disapprovalthan women in both waves, though the change in disapproval acrosswaves was somewhat larger for men than women. Male ICEdisapproval rose +8.0 pts versus +4.8 pts for women; male Trumpimmigration disapproval rose +6.8 pts versus +4.5 pts for women.

•Agreement that undocumented immigrants take jobs from UScitizens or keep wages low declined modestly across most groups.Agreement that enforcement mainly targets violent criminals—aclaim central to the administration’s public justification for itspolicies—fell among Independents while rising among Republicans,indicating growing partisan divergence in basic factual assessmentsof enforcement.

•Immigration salience remained high and broadly stable:approximately two-thirds of Americans across all partisan anddemographic groups rated immigration as important in both waves,with no group changing by more than 3 percentage points.