Trump’s immigration tactics repel voters. Can Democrats attract them?

The Washington Post ^ | October 17, 2025 | Matt Bai

[E. Pluribus Unum]

If their plan is just to rely on Trump’s overreach, then they’ll be repeating Biden’s mistakes.

Voters certainly seem to be going south on President Donald Trump’s war on non-White immigrants. In a New York Times poll conducted in late September, a slim majority of registered voters said the president had gone too far in aggressively trying to ferret out and deport non-Americans — and that was before federal agents started using tear gas and pepper spray on the streets of Chicago.

It’s a rare glimpse of bluer skies for Democrats since last year’s presidential election. But if their plan on immigration is to rely on Trump’s overreach, then they’ll be making the same mistake they made at the start of the Biden administration. Trump’s tactics raise moral questions for the electorate, but so do the policies that got us here.

No issue is more central to Trump’s appeal than the nexus of immigration and the border; it is the issue on which he consistently scores the most support, and it’s the one he comes back to in times of boredom or duress. That’s partly because there’s an ugly strain of Trump voters for whom otherness — racial, ethnic, religious — is a preoccupation. But it’s also because, to a lot of more moderate Americans (and not only White ones), securing the border is the very least a government should be able to do.

Even in that Times poll, there were clear signs that voters haven’t abandoned Trump on the issue. A majority of independents and one-fifth of Democrats said they support the idea of booting out those who were here unlawfully, and 51 percent of voters said the government was mostly deporting people who deserved it.

This dynamic reminds me very much of what it was like to...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In a New York Times poll conducted in late September, a slim majority of registered voters said the president had gone too far in aggressively trying to ferret out and deport non-Americans...

"Non-Americans" are "illegal aliens," Matt.

And a poll of "registered voters" is a poll riddled with "non-American" motor-voters.

[Dr. Sivana]

My wife is a non-American. She is a Canadian with a Green Card. The president is NOT trying to ferret her out.

[M. Thatcher]

Trump’s immigration tactics repel voters.

Not Trump voters, who are a majority.

Can Democrats attract them?

Nope.

[JBW1949]

My guess is that “poll” is about as honest as The Washington Post...

[rktman]

🤔. Odd. I don’t feel repelled at all. More like elated.

[bert]

.......panic

In Portland and Chicago the terrorists are hard at work at the ICE fed building. But, in the rest of these two cities, ICE is locating and detaining for deportation the illegal aliens resident in the sanctuary

[HYPOCRACY]

Hispanics are white according to the FBI.

[Texas Eagle]

The FurriecRATS are aroused.

[Bratch]

It was probably a poll of the NYT and WP newsrooms. 🙄

[Steve_Seattle]

"Voters certainly seem to be going south on President Donald Trump’s war on non-White immigrants."

My girlfriend is a non-white immigrant (Filipino), but the government is not coming after her because she is a legal immigrant and a US citizen. The Times' sloppy language is deliberate obfuscation and propaganda.

[Libloather]

Didn’t ask ‘em if Chicago is safer now...

[Ex-Con777]

How can it repel the TDS never Trumpers?

EC

[bray]

Of course Americans want more rapists, murderers, and drug traffickers.

[GrumpyOldGuy]

B.S. The majority supports removing illegals.

[RandallFlagg]

Can Democrats attract them?

Illegal aliens are criminals.
Democrats have no problem attracting criminals.

[Starboard]

This article is complete garbage.

[mass55th]

"Trump’s immigration tactics repel illegal voters."

There, fixed it.

[Steve_Seattle]

" . . . there’s an ugly strain of Trump voters for whom otherness — racial, ethnic, religious — is a preoccupation."

Matt is a POS. It is Democrats who are obsessed by race, who divide and rank people by race, and who demonize "whiteness," treating it as a disease. The left hates any form of Christianity that does not warp its faith to conform to leftist dogma. The staunchest Trump supporter I knew (he passed away last year) was married to a Japanese woman. Trump is married to a legal immigrant and Vance is married to a POC from an immigrant family.

[absalom01]

This seems like wish casting, but the media have been relentless in portraying the immigration enforcement efforts as being militarized (they’re not, the response to the “protests” has been) and random.

There’s a strategy behind claiming that “Due Process” is being ignored. It’s a false claim, every single person encountering ICE is getting due process, but among the MSNBC audience, it’s a matter of faith.

The midterms will tell the tale, and we shouldn’t be overly confident, but this guy’s take is at least premature in terms of how this falls out politically.

[Fresh Wind]

The pile of rotting garbage is at it again.