Mass Deportation Fatigue

Trump won in 2024 promising mass deportations. Now the public gets queasy about them.

The Trump administration is on pace to have one of the highest deportation totals in recent history this year–but it’s likely to fall well short of the MAGA base’s expectations.

It’s expected the admin will deport more than 300,000 migrants by the end of this year, which is clearly not the million promised in the first year. Administration officials vow to increase deportations to 3000 per day, with the increased funding from the Big Beautiful Bill aiding this goal.

However, the Trump administration now faces a major hurdle to its objective: public disapproval. Last year, the majority of Americans backed mass deportations. Now polls show a majority thinks Trump has gone too far with deportations. This may shock right-wingers who think Trump hasn’t gone far enough on this matter. But the rest of the country sees the matter differently. This shift is even reflected among the bro-casters who backed Trump in 2024. Joe Rogan, Andrew Schulz, and other prominent podcasters think the ICE raids are too cruel to continue. Rogan has personally lobbied Trump to back off his signature position.

The country has also shifted on immigration in general. Last year, 55 percent of Americans wanted immigration decreased. Now it stands at 30 percent.

Trump’s plan for mass deportations could be derailed by his own successes to curb illegal immigration and by the public’s fickleness and weak stomach. Trump will have to ignore public opinion to deport hundreds of thousands of migrants.

The president can declare the border secure. Last month, there were fewer than 5000 apprehensions recorded at the southwest border. This would’ve been considered a low daily total under Biden. None of the migrants apprehended were caught and released–like they would under Biden–and all are expected to be deported. July’s numbers continued the massive drop in border crossings under President Trump. We’re far away from the time when Biden officials would celebrate over 125,000 entries a month as proof of a “secure border.”

This success has pushed immigration out of the minds of Americans. No longer do they turn on the news and see hordes of foreigners pouring over the border. They no longer hear about Tren de Aragua or MS-13 taking over apartment blocks in Middle America. They’re no longer witnessing illegals swamp major cities and ignite local protests. Instead, they’re now hearing about how migrants are too “scared” to show up to work and flee the country.

This issue is no longer pressing to many Americans. They’ve moved on to other things and think it’s been solved. Of course, it has not been solved and immigration still stands as a major threat to this country. We still have many millions of illegals, as well as unprecedented levels of legal immigration. It’s not a problem that’s going away. However, the average voter can quickly forget important matters or change his mind on such things. The majority of Americans went from supporting Black Lives Matter to wanting DEI banned in a very short period of time. The public attitude towards immigration changed dramatically from the late 2010s to the early 2020s. We’re seeing a shift once more.

This is the issue angering the Democratic base the most. Several Democratic lawmakers report getting a bevy of phone calls about how they need to risk their lives and engage in violence to stop ICE raids. The protests, riots, and attempted terror attacks over the immigration enforcement demonstrates the level of anger it inspires. Removing illegal criminals outrages liberals far more than the offenses the illegals commit.

Thankfully, most voters are not as fired up about it as MSNBC addicts are. Their support for mass deportations may have withered, but it’s not leading to serious political consequences–at least, not yet. The first Trump administration was paralyzed over a variety of immigration issues, from basic immigration law enforcement to defunding sanctuary cities. The media frenzy would often convince Republicans to disavow these efforts, further styming Trump’s agenda.

It’s better this time around. Trump is doing a whole lot more than in the first term. They cried bloody murder over family separation in 2019. Now Trump sends migrants to prison camps in El Salvador and masked ICE agents roam through sanctuary cities looking for illegals. The polls and media criticism, so far, aren’t stopping these efforts.

The biggest factor in the public’s change towards mass deportations may be the public’s weak constitution. Americans get squeamish around displays of force. We’re horrified by the idea of public executions, corporal punishment, and even aggressive anti-riot tactics. 2025 America is not the same country that carried out Operation Wetback and the Palmer Raids. The majority doesn’t have the stomach for these kinds of actions. All it takes is a few sob stories to make Americans reconsider any policy, no matter how necessary it is. Many Americans will easily fall for tales of hard-working migrants plucked from their jobs by sinister ICE agents. Normies are bombarded with this messaging whenever they turn on the news.

Under these circumstances, it’s remarkable that disapproval for mass deportations still remains under 60 percent. In another time, there would have been a much stronger public backlash.

Trump can’t forsake his immigration promises. It would alienate his own base to give up on deportations solely due to public polling. The major selling point of the Big Beautiful Bill was to fund mass deportations. It’s unlikely the admin stops trying to remove more migrants from the country.

The fickleness of the public matters greatly in a democracy. But it’s necessary for our leaders to ignore the people’s mercurial nature and do what’s right, not what’s popular at the moment. Our nation’s future depends on mass deportations. We cannot have millions of illegal aliens living amongst us and changing our nation. We need to tell the world that the border is closed and we want to keep America American.

Trump should look to the future here and not to the ever-shifting attitudes of the public. The public’s weak stomach be damned. We need immigration curbed and the illegal aliens out of here.