New polling data suggests the Trump administration’s immigration strategy is rapidly becoming a political liability, with a majority of Americans now saying Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should be removed from her post and support for ICE sinking to historic lows.
Speaking Thursday, Harry Enten said the numbers show a sharp and accelerating backlash to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the administration officials overseeing it. “The numbers absolutely tell a story,” Enten said, describing immigration as “a bad political situation for the president of the United States—and it is only getting worse.”
According to Enten’s analysis, ICE’s net approval rating has plunged from an already weak -17 points in early January to -29 points following the events of the past month—the worst showing ever recorded. Among independent voters, the collapse is even steeper, with ICE enforcement registering a staggering -40 net approval rating. “The American people aren’t just not with him,” Enten said of President Donald Trump. “They are on a totally other planet.”
The polling also paints an especially grim picture for Noem personally. While her job disapproval stood at roughly 50% in early January, new data shows that 58% of Americans now want her fired outright. “We’re not just talking about disapproval,” Enten said. “We’re talking about nearly three in five Americans who believe Kristi Noem should be removed from her job.”
Enten went further, calling Noem “an absolute political albatross” for the administration. He suggested her stewardship of DHS—and her role as the public face of Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement—has intensified voter backlash rather than contained it.
The numbers may also help explain recent shifts inside the administration. Enten noted that Tom Homan has increasingly stepped into the spotlight, a move he framed as an attempt to blunt the political damage. “Kristi Noem is a big reason why this has turned into such a deepening political problem for the president,” Enten said.
Taken together, the polling signals a broad erosion of public trust in ICE’s actions and growing impatience with the administration’s approach to immigration. As Enten emphasized, the data suggests this is no longer a marginal issue—it is one that now threatens to define Trump’s standing with voters heading into the next phase of his presidency.
