Fox News figures are citing outdated polling data to argue that Americans are in broad support of the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies, even though Trump’s immigration approval numbers are rapidly tanking.
A January 26 Reuters/Ipsos poll found that “just 39% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing on immigration” while 58% believe ICE’s tactics go “too far.” In fact, Fox’s own poll shows 59% of Americans believe Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s tactics are “too aggressive."
After previously dismissing multiple polls showing broad disapproval of ICE’s use of deadly force in the shooting of Renee Good and claiming without evidence that a majority of Americans support ICE, Fox is repeating the same playbook — dismissal and distraction.
Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Griff Jenkins claimed on January 29 that the Fox poll’s findings on ICE’s aggressive tactics don’t “give full context to the situation."
On January 26, host Jesse Watters cited a Center for Immigration Studies poll from July 2025 to argue that a majority of Americans want local police to cooperate with ICE: “Look at this poll from over the summer. Majority of the country, 65% actually, are against sanctuary cities. 70% of the country says the locals should be cooperating with ICE. This isn't even a partisan issue. Just a small minority who are sacrificing lives to keep criminal aliens in their cities."
The next night, Watters doubled down, arguing that “polls have been clear since day one” of Trump’s second term. He then aired a CNN clip from January 2025 discussing multiple polls showing that a majority of Americans supported deporting “all immigrants here illegally."