Fox News Poll Shows Majority of Voters Believe Immigration Enforcement Has Exceeded Limits

<p>A 53% majority of registered voters believe that the Trump administration’s enforcement of immigration laws has gone too far, according to a Fox News poll conducted from September 11 to 14, 2026. This view has remained consistent since June 2025.</p><p>The remaining voters are divided, with 23% stating that enforcement has not gone far enough and 23% believing it is just about right.</p><p>The results reflect partisan divisions: 87% of Democrats and 60% of independents assert that enforcement has gone too far, while Republicans are split between those who think it has not gone far enough (40%) and those who feel it is about right (43%).</p><p>Among those who believe enforcement has exceeded limits, 45% attribute this to the government using excessive force, while 49% argue that the wrong individuals are being targeted.</p><p>Democrats are more likely to cite targeting the wrong people (by 7 points), while independents lean towards the belief that excessive force is the issue (by 2 points). There are insufficient Republicans indicating that enforcement has gone too far to draw significant conclusions.</p><p>President Trump’s approval rating on immigration stands at 43%, a decrease from a high of 48% recorded last summer.</p><p>For the past four years, voters consistently indicated that Republicans would handle immigration better than Democrats, but this advantage has diminished, with voters now nearly evenly split between the parties (48% for Democrats vs. 49% for Republicans). Independents are supporting Democrats over Republicans by 6 points, and 15% of non-MAGA Republicans prefer Democrats on this issue.</p><p>Daron Shaw, a GOP pollster involved in the survey, stated, "The immigration issue has been defined in terms of border security since the Biden years. But voters now think of immigration policy as ICE crackdowns, and many say these have been too aggressive."</p><p>Although only 8% of voters identify immigration as their top priority, it ranks just behind the cost of living (34%) and the broader economy (14%) as the most pressing issue facing the country.</p><p>Nearly two-thirds of voters (63%) agree that a child born to an illegal immigrant in the United States should automatically become a citizen. While support has decreased from previous highs of around 67-69%, it remains significantly higher than the low of 45% recorded in 2006.</p><p>Support for birthright citizenship is largely defined by partisanship: approximately 90% of Democrats and 60% of independents support it, while 60% of Republicans oppose it.</p><p>Among Hispanic voters, two-thirds disapprove of Trump’s overall job performance and his handling of immigration. They favor Democrats over Republicans on this issue by 19 points, with 60% stating that immigration enforcement has gone too far. Additionally, three-quarters of Hispanic voters believe citizenship should be guaranteed for those born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents.</p><p>The poll was conducted by Beacon Research and Shaw & Company Research, involving interviews with a sample of 1,211 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is ±3 percentage points, with higher margins for subgroups.</p>