Eight out of ten American voters now back deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, and the sharpest move in that direction is coming from Democrats, a new Harvard/Harris poll finds.
The survey, conducted May 29, 30 for the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University by The Harris Poll and Harris X, showed 80% of registered voters favor removing illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. That figure stood at 75% just one month earlier, a five-point jump that landed well outside the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 points.
The Democratic numbers tell the real story. In April, 63% of Democrats supported deporting criminal illegal immigrants. By late May, that share had climbed to 71%, an eight-point swing that no amount of progressive messaging appears to have slowed. For a party whose loudest voices spent years resisting enforcement and floating abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the shift is worth watching closely.
Republican support for deporting criminal illegal immigrants ticked up modestly, from 89% in April to 90% in May. Independents moved more noticeably, rising from 73% to 79% over the same period.
The poll also asked a broader question: whether voters support deporting any immigrant in the country illegally, regardless of criminal record. Overall, 56% said yes, up one point from April.
Here, too, Democrats shifted. Support among Democratic voters for mass deportation of all illegal immigrants rose from 33% in April to 37% in May. Independent backing climbed from 49% to 53%. Republican support, interestingly, dipped three points, from 80% to 77%, though it remained the highest of any partisan group by a wide margin.
The New York Post reported the poll results, noting the survey covered 1,725 registered voters.
The polling shift arrives against a backdrop of aggressive federal action. Department of Homeland Security figures show more than 3 million illegal aliens have left the United States or been deported since President Trump took office. Of those, 2.2 million opted to self-deport through a DHS program that allows migrants to turn themselves in via a government app in return for a cash stipend and a free flight home.
Another 900,000 have been deported since January 20, 2025, DHS stated. And as of May, the department had arrested 900,000 migrants in the country illegally.
Those numbers reflect a level of enforcement activity that earlier administrations avoided or actively discouraged. The Trump administration recently signed a nearly $70 billion immigration enforcement bill, locking in ICE and Border Patrol funding through the end of the presidential term, a legislative commitment that backs the operational pace with hard dollars.
For years, progressive leaders treated immigration enforcement as a moral failing rather than a policy choice. Sanctuary city ordinances, calls to defund ICE, and executive orders loosening interior enforcement defined the Democratic brand on the issue from roughly 2017 forward.
The Harvard/Harris numbers suggest that brand no longer holds with the party's own voters. When 71% of Democrats tell pollsters they want criminal illegal immigrants removed, the gap between the activist class and the rank-and-file becomes impossible to paper over.
The broader deportation question is more divided, 37% of Democrats is still a minority position within the party. But the direction matters. That number was 33% just a month ago. If the trend continues at anything close to this pace, Democratic candidates heading into primary season will face an uncomfortable choice between the donors who fund "immigrant rights" nonprofits and the voters who want the law enforced.
The administration's policy wins extend beyond immigration. A federal appeals court recently allowed the White House to keep its 10% global tariffs in place while legal challenges proceed, another front where critics predicted public backlash that has not materialized in the way opponents hoped.
Independent voters, the group that typically decides general elections, moved six points toward supporting deportation of criminal illegal immigrants in a single month, from 73% to 79%. On the broader question of deporting all illegal immigrants, independents went from 49% to 53%, crossing the majority threshold for the first time in this polling series.
That crossover matters more than any single partisan number. Candidates who read polls know that independents at 53% on mass deportation make the issue a net winner in swing districts, not a liability.
Meanwhile, the administration continues to press on multiple fronts. Trump has also been engaged in high-stakes negotiations on an Iran nuclear deal built on verification, demonstrating a willingness to pursue ambitious policy goals across both domestic and foreign arenas simultaneously.
One of the more striking DHS figures is the 2.2 million who chose to self-deport through the government app program. Critics dismissed the concept of voluntary departure for years as a fantasy. The numbers suggest otherwise.
A program that offers a cash stipend and a free flight home in exchange for turning yourself in is not without controversy. But it moves people out of the country without the raids, courtroom battles, and media confrontations that defined earlier enforcement eras. Whether that model is sustainable or cost-effective at scale remains an open question, DHS has not published detailed cost-per-departure figures in the material available.
What is clear is that the combination of enforcement pressure and a voluntary exit ramp has produced a departure total, more than 3 million, that dwarfs anything seen in recent decades.
Congressional battles over funding and policy continue to shape the landscape. Trump has not hesitated to call out members of his own party when he believes they are obstructing his agenda, a posture that keeps both allies and opponents aware of the political cost of resistance.
The Harvard/Harris survey captures a snapshot, not a settled consensus. The exact wording of the question on deporting "any immigrant in the country illegally" is not specified in the available reporting, and question wording can influence results. The poll's sample of 1,725 registered voters is respectable but not enormous, and the margin of error means the true figures could shift by a couple of points in either direction.
Nor does the poll explain why Democratic voters are moving. Is it a response to high-profile crimes committed by illegal immigrants? Frustration with housing and labor market pressures in cities absorbing large migrant populations? A simple recognition that the law should mean something? The data measures the shift but does not diagnose it.
What the data does establish is direction. Across every partisan group except Republicans on the broader deportation question, support for enforcement moved up between April and May. And the single largest move, eight points among Democrats on criminal deportations, came from the group whose elected leaders have done the most to resist exactly that policy.
Democratic officeholders now face a familiar problem in a new form. Their voters are telling pollsters one thing. Their advocacy infrastructure, the legal groups, the nonprofit networks, the editorial boards, is telling them another. When 71% of your own party supports deporting criminal illegal immigrants, opposing that position is not principled dissent. It is ignoring your constituents.
Republicans, for their part, hold near-unanimous support on the criminal deportation question at 90%. The slight dip in GOP support for mass deportation of all illegal immigrants, from 80% to 77%, may reflect debate over methods, costs, or priorities rather than any fundamental softening. It bears watching but does not alter the overall picture.
The overall picture is this: the American public, including a growing share of Democrats and a majority of independents, wants illegal immigrants who commit crimes removed from the country. A slim but growing majority wants all illegal immigrants removed. And the federal government is, for the first time in years, acting on that preference at scale.
When even Harvard's polling outfit delivers numbers that validate enforcement, the political ground has shifted in ways that no amount of activist energy can easily reverse.