Americans’ Views of Deportations and Immigration Enforcement

Most say arrests of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally should be allowed at protests or in homes, but not at places of worship or schools

How we did this

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand the American public’s views of immigration enforcement policies and the personal impact they have on U.S. adults.

For this analysis, we surveyed 5,123 adults from Feb. 24 to March 2, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Surveys were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the questions used for this report, the topline and the survey methodology.

Terminology

The terms Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably in this report.

Immigrant refers to people born outside of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories.

U.S. born refers to people born in the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories.

As the new Trump administration begins to carry out immigration enforcement, Americans largely agree that at least some immigrants living in the United States illegally should be deported, in particular those who have committed violent crimes. However, less consensus exists on how the government should carry out deportations.

Roughly one-third of U.S. adults (32%) say all immigrants living in the country illegally should be deported, while 16% say none should be deported. About half (51%) say at least some should face deportation.

U.S. adults who say some immigrants living in the country illegally should be deported have varying views of who should be removed. Nearly all (97%) support deporting those who have committed violent crimes.

Those who favor some deportations are more evenly divided when it comes to deporting those who have committed nonviolent crimes (52%) or have arrived in the U.S. during the past four years (44%). By contrast, far fewer say those with family ties in the U.S. should be deported, according to a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted Feb. 24 to March 2, 2025.

An opposing bar chart showing Most U.S. adults say immigration arrests should not be allowed in places of worship or schools

When it comes to law enforcement, the public has mixed views on where officers should and should not be allowed to arrest immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Majorities of U.S. adults say immigration arrests should not take place in:

Places of worship (65%)
Schools (63%)
Hospitals (61%)

By contrast, majorities say arrests of immigrants in the U.S. illegally should be allowed in the following places:

Protests or rallies (66%)
Homes (63%)
Workplaces (54%)

Jump to Chapter 1 to read more on how different groups of Americans view deportations and where immigration arrests are acceptable.

Donald Trump signed several executive orders related to immigration after becoming president on Jan. 20. By the end of February, apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border had dropped to historically low levels , while deportations trailed those of the Biden administration.

In March, after the survey was conducted, Trump used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport hundreds of immigrants that his administration said were gang members living in the country illegally. The rarely used act allows the government, if at war, to deport immigrants without allowing them to go before a judge.

During the pandemic, migration to the U.S. stalled because governments around the world restricted travel. Since 2021, U.S. Border Patrol has recorded millions of encounters with migrants crossing into the U.S. from Mexico without authorization, with many seeking asylum. These encounters peaked in 2023 and dropped sharply in 2024.

As of 2022, an estimated 11 million immigrants lived in the U.S. without authorization. This group includes those who do not have a green card or other lawful temporary residence visa or are not naturalized U.S. citizens. It also includes an estimated 1.2 million immigrants enrolled in Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) who are temporarily protected from deportation and have a permit to work.

About 772,000 immigrants have received temporary protection through parole programs for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV) and Ukrainians since 2022. However, the president can revoke these temporary protections. In late March, the Trump administration announced it will remove this deportation protection for the approximately 532,000 CHNV parolees.