🔥 TARLOV’S CLAIM ABOUT ICE RAIDS TRIGGERS A FIERCE SHOWDOWN — NOW THE FIGHT OVER WHAT AMERICANS REALLY THINK IS HEATING UP FAST… |
🚨 Jessica Tarlov Says Most Americans Are AGAINST ICE Raids — So We Checked the Polls
The viral claim sounds simple. The polling is not. Americans are increasingly negative about ICE’s current tactics — while still strongly supporting targeted deportations of serious criminals.
Jessica Tarlov has become one of Fox News’ most persistent critics of the Trump administration’s mass-deportation strategy.
Now a claim circulating widely on social media says Tarlov made an even broader argument: that most Americans are against the ICE raids.
So let’s test it.
If “against ICE raids” means Americans oppose immigration enforcement altogether, the claim does not hold up.
But if it means a majority are uncomfortable with the aggressive tactics, citywide operations and expanded raid strategy ICE has used under President Trump, the latest polling gives Tarlov a much stronger case.
And that distinction changes the entire debate.
First, the Exact Viral Quote Is Harder to Pin Down Than It Looks
The line “most Americans are against the ICE raids” has been reposted repeatedly across X, Facebook and other social platforms.
But the viral posts generally do not link back to a clean original clip containing that exact sentence.
What is verifiable is Tarlov’s broader position.
In a January 27 Fox Across America interview, Fox described Tarlov as arguing that the Trump administration had “gone too far” in its mass-deportation effort. She has also repeatedly criticized ICE tactics and the administration’s handling of enforcement operations in Minneapolis and other cities.
So the broader claim is consistent with her public argument — but the exact viral wording should be treated as a social-media paraphrase unless the original clip is produced.
The Latest Poll: 60% Disapprove of the Job ICE Is Doing
The clearest recent national number comes from Quinnipiac University.
In a national poll released July 29, 2026, 60% of registered voters said they disapproved of the way ICE was doing its job. Only 37% approved.
That is not a narrow split.
And it lines up with a broader pattern that has appeared across several national surveys this year.
AP-NORC Found the Same Basic Problem — Especially With Aggressive Tactics
An Associated Press-NORC poll conducted July 23–27 found that more Americans disapproved than approved of the way ICE was enforcing immigration laws.
About half of U.S. adults disapproved of ICE’s approach, while roughly three in ten approved.
The poll also found that most Americans believed the administration had gone too far when it came to using traffic stops to locate and arrest immigrants living in the country illegally and when it came to sending federal immigration agents into U.S. cities.
That matters because those are exactly the kinds of operations most people picture when they hear the phrase “ICE raids.”
On that definition, the polling is much closer to Tarlov’s side than her critics may expect.
And Earlier Polling Was Even More Negative
The January NPR/PBS News/Marist survey was more striking.
It found that 65% of Americans believed ICE’s actions in enforcing immigration law had gone too far. Only 22% said the agency’s actions were about right, while 12% said they had not gone far enough.
The same poll found 60% disapproved of the job ICE was doing and 62% believed ICE’s actions were making Americans less safe.
A March Harvard CAPS/Harris poll also found just 45% support for hiring additional ICE agents to conduct immigration raids.
In that same survey, 60% of voters said they preferred not to provide ICE with additional funding unless the agency changed its operations.
Taken together, those surveys make it difficult to argue that broad public opinion is enthusiastically behind an expansion of the current raid strategy.
But Here’s the Turn: Americans Still Strongly Support Deporting Criminals
This is where a one-line social-media poll can badly distort the issue.
Americans are not simply choosing between “support ICE” and “oppose ICE.”
In the same March Harvard CAPS/Harris survey, 77% supported deporting immigrants in the country illegally who had committed crimes.
That was one of Trump’s most popular policies in the entire poll.
Other surveys show the same pattern: support rises sharply when enforcement is focused on people who have committed serious crimes, and falls when operations target long-term residents with no criminal record, sensitive locations, warrantless stops or sweeping city operations.
So an American voter can simultaneously support deporting dangerous criminals and oppose the way some ICE raids are being carried out.
Those positions are not contradictory.
The Public Is Drawing a Line Between Enforcement and Overreach
Stanford’s Public Pulse reviewed dozens of national survey questions on immigration enforcement from 2025 and 2026 and reached essentially the same conclusion.
Americans tend to support arrests and detention in certain circumstances, but majorities reject more intrusive or indiscriminate tactics.
Workplace raids, arrests of long-term residents with no criminal record and enforcement in sensitive places have faced greater resistance.
That helps explain why immigration can remain one of Trump’s strongest issues with Republican voters even while ICE itself posts negative national approval numbers.
The coalition is split not only by party, but by what kind of enforcement people believe is justified.
Republicans Still See ICE Very Differently
The partisan divide is enormous.
AP-NORC found roughly six in ten Republicans approved of ICE’s approach, compared with about two in ten independents and only 4% of Democrats.
Marist found 73% of Republicans approved of the job ICE was doing, even as 60% of Americans overall disapproved.
That helps explain why social-media comment sections can look completely different from national polling.
A political account with a heavily conservative audience can ask, “Are you for or against the raids?” and receive an overwhelming pro-ICE response.
That result can be perfectly real for that audience — and still tell us very little about the country as a whole.
So Was Tarlov Right?
Mostly — but only if the claim is stated carefully.
There is strong polling evidence that a majority of Americans disapprove of ICE’s current performance or believe its enforcement tactics have gone too far.
There is also evidence that majorities oppose specific raid-style tactics such as aggressive traffic stops and large federal deployments into cities.
But saying “most Americans are against ICE raids” can sound as if most Americans oppose deportation or immigration enforcement itself.
The polling does not support that broader conclusion.
Americans remain strongly in favor of removing serious criminals who are in the country illegally.
What they appear far less comfortable with is an enforcement strategy they perceive as sweeping, indiscriminate or excessive.
That is the real divide — and it is much more revealing than a yes-or-no social media poll.
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So if the question is simply, “Are Americans for ICE or against ICE?” the polling says the question itself is too simplistic.
The better question is: which ICE operations do Americans believe cross the line?
