Polls show growing support for mass deportation as Trump threatens to use military

The president-elect has suggested a national emergency could be declared on the issue — but polling suggests while support for deportations has grown, the majority of voters still back a path to legal status

Donald Trump has confirmed the military could be used to carry out mass deportations, just as a new review of polling revealed support for the measure has grown since he was first president.

The president-elect also suggested a national emergency could be declared on the issue once he is in power, when he responded to a supporter’s post on his Truth Social platform on Monday morning.

“Reports are the incoming @RealDonaldTrump administration prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program,” conservative activist Tom Fitton wrote. The president-elect responded “TRUE!!!”, without going into further detail.

Donald Trump speaks in front of border patrol agents on the campaign trail, where he pledged a ‘mass deportation operation’ that could upend millions of families (REUTERS)

Trump declared a national emergency for US-Mexico border wall construction in his first term in an attempt to bypass Congress. President Joe Biden rescinded that order shortly after he entered office.

The incoming president may find it easier to push through tougher measures with Republicans controlling Congress and the White House. But while polls suggest support for deportations has grown since his first term in office, the majority of Americans back providing a path to citizenship under certain circumstances.

Support for deportations grew by 20 points from 2017 to 2024 in a survey by CNN, alongside a 22-point rise from 2019 in the number of voters who believe that “having an increasing number of people of many different races, ethnic groups, and nationalities in the US” poses a threat to society.

And a Gallup survey in June showed the share of Americans who support deporting all immigrants who live in the US without legal permission jumped up 15 points from 2016, when Trump first assumed office.

However, while immigration was among the key issues motivating voters this year, they did not necessarily give Trump the full-throated mandate his supporters claim. Polling throughout the 2024 campaign found widely disparate levels of support, depending on how those questions were framed.

Fifty-six percent of voters agreed that most undocumented immigrants in the US should be able to apply for legal status, and roughly one-quarter of Trump supporters — including four in 10 Hispanic voters who voted for him — favor a path to citizenship, according to CNN’s exit polling.

Trump’s former acting ICE director Tom Homan will return to the president-elect’s administration as a ‘border czar’ overseeing deportation plans (REUTERS)

In July, 47 percent of respondents to a Gallup poll said they favored “deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home country.”

But another poll from Marquette Law School in October showed that one group of respondents said they would support deporting immigrants living in the country without legal permission “even if they have lived here for a number of years, have jobs and no criminal record”. In that group, support for deportations dropped to 40 percent, with 60 percent opposing.

The Gallup poll found that 70 percent of Americans support “allowing immigrants living in the US illegally the chance to become US citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time.” Support among respondents for immigrants who arrived in the country as children was even higher, at 81 percent.

A Pew Research Center poll found that 59 percent of voters want undocumented immigrants who meet certain requirements to stay in the country, with just one-third backing a Trump-like plan to deport all immigrants living in the country illegally. And a CNN survey one week before Election Day found that two-thirds of voters support a government plan to help immigrants achieve legal status.

Illegal immigration, and how to tackle it, is a key issue for voters (AFP via Getty Images)

Trump’s campaign was fueled by baseless characterizations of a nation overrun by tens of millions of immigrants, frequently relying on violent rhetoric and false claims to build support for his “day one” anti-immigrant agenda.

He has since selected Tom Homan, his former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to serve as a “border czar” to implement the president-elect’s deportation plan, including law enforcement raids of workplaces.

“I got three words for them: shock and awe,” Homan told Donald Trump Jr last week.

Homan, among the architects of Trump’s first-term “zero tolerance” anti-immigrant agenda, including the practice of separating thousands of children from their families at the southern border.

“Families can be deported together,” Homan told CBS last month.

Roughly 4 million children live with an undocumented parent, according to the Pew Research Center.

Trump told NBC News following his election victory that there is no “price tag” for his proposal, which is expected to cost more than $967 billion over 10 years, according to the American Immigration Council.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said Trump’s plans would eliminate 22 percent of American farmworkers, 15 percent of construction workers, eight percent of service workers, eight percent of manufacturing workers and six percent of transportation workers