In polling conducted on January 8, YouGov showed that American public opinion has turned sharply against ICE. This polling was conducted on the same day Renée Good was killed during an ICE operation in Minneapolis, so it does not fully incorporate the public outrage generated by this event.
Fully 52% disapproved of how ICE is doing its job (42% strongly disapproved), while 39% approved. Furthermore, 51% say that ICE’s tactics are “too forceful” while just over one in four (27%) said they were “about right”. A 44% plurality (30% strongly agreed) approved of recent protests against ICE.
Support for ICE’s work is clustered strongly among Republicans (53% strongly approved, 27% somewhat approved). Democrats gave ICE failing grades by an overwhelming margin (72% strongly disapproved, 13% somewhat disapproved). The most significant finding in the YouGov poll was that a 56% majority of Independents (44% strongly, 12% somewhat) disapproved of ICE.
To put this issue in perspective, in February 2025, YouGov polling found that ICE had a plus of 16 points approval rating.
Axios pointed out that support for abolishing ICE has dramatically increased.
- In September 2024, just 19% supported abolishing the agency, according to survey data from research firm Civiqs, while 66% opposed.
- January 2026, 42% supported abolishing the agency and 49.5% opposed.
- Abolishing ICE has become a consensus view among Democrats, per the Civiqs data, with 69% of Democrats now supporting the idea.
As more people see video from the Renée Good’s killing, public opinion will continue to shift. An equally likely conclusion is that ICE will haemorrhage support from Independents. Despite what President Trump and Vice President Vance say, the polling data clearly shows that the majority of Americans are not on the side of ICE but are with those putting their lives on the line to protest ICE’s aggressive actions.
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