Voters Oppose Deportations of Undocumented Immigrants — Regardless of Their Job or Years in the U.S.
By Lew Blank
While most voters say they support “mass deportations” in the abstract, recent Data for Progress polling has found that voters oppose deportations when presented with various real-world case examples. Voters, for instance, do not support deporting individuals who are residing in the U.S. under temporary protected status (TPS) or individuals who were brought to the U.S. without legal status as a child 20 years ago — and a majority of voters believe that deportations should not occur in sensitive locations like schools, hospitals, and places of worship.
In a new poll, Data for Progress expanded on this research by testing a slate of commonplace cases of undocumented immigrants to determine if voters support deporting those who have lower-wage jobs and a shorter length of stay in the U.S. In the experiment, each hypothetical individual was assigned a number of years they had been in the U.S., based on national data on the distribution of undocumented immigrants’ length of stay, and a profession, based on jobs data for New York state.
In all eight tested examples of “standard” undocumented immigrant cases, voters oppose deportation — regardless of the immigrants’ occupation or how long they have been in the U.S.
Voters are most opposed to deportations of undocumented immigrants who work in higher-wage jobs. Only 22% of voters support deporting an undocumented immigrant who came to the U.S. 20 years ago and works as a head chef at a restaurant, and only 27% support deporting an undocumented immigrant who came to the U.S. 10 years ago and works as a registered nurse.
Voters also oppose deporting undocumented immigrants who work in lower-wage jobs — regardless of how long they’ve been in the U.S. Majorities oppose deporting an undocumented immigrant who came to the U.S. 30 years ago and works as a home health care aide (59% to 25%) and an undocumented immigrant who came to the U.S. 20 years ago and works on a farm (57% to 27%). Furthermore, pluralities of voters oppose deportation for an undocumented immigrant who came to the U.S. three months ago and works in construction (45% to 41%) and an undocumented immigrant who came to the U.S. five years ago and works as a truck driver (41% to 36%).
The poll also finds that voters agree with the principle of offering refugee or temporary protected status to those in harm’s way. At least 60% of voters think the U.S. should continue to protect immigrants facing persecution based on factors like race, religion, or nationality (64%), environmental disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, or epidemics (63%), and ongoing armed conflicts (61%).
Finally, voters were presented with two statements about being compassionate or not toward undocumented immigrants. A majority of voters (55%), including majorities of Democrats (81%) and Independents (54%), say the following statement comes closer to their view: “I am compassionate toward undocumented immigrants. We're talking about families fleeing extreme poverty and violence, who will do anything for their kids in pursuit of a better life and the American dream.”
Thirty-nine percent of voters, including 62% of Republicans, say they are not compassionate toward undocumented immigrants because “we're talking about people who broke the law and are now draining public resources, and many have brought drugs and crime to our country.”
Broadly, this polling finds that while voters support mass deportations in the abstract, they oppose deportations when presented with a wide variety of real-life scenarios. Voters oppose deportations not only for undocumented immigrants who work higher-wage jobs and who have lived in the U.S. for long periods of time, but also for undocumented immigrants who work lower-wage jobs and have lived here for less than 10 years. In short, voters do not want the U.S. to deport most of the undocumented individuals living in the country, and a majority express compassion and support offering protections for those in harm’s way.
Lew Blank (@LewBlank) is a communications strategist at Data for Progress.
Survey Methodology
From February 28 to March 2, 2025, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,189 U.S. likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, geography, and recalled presidential vote. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error associated with the sample size is ±3 percentage points. Results for subgroups of the sample are subject to increased margins of error. Partisanship reflected in tabulations is based on self-identified party affiliation, not partisan registration. For more information please visit dataforprogress.org/our-methodology.