In office, President Donald Trump has led a historic mass deportation campaign and pushed for sweeping restrictions on both illegal and legal immigration. But new polling from Data for Progress finds that likely voters hold nuanced views on the reasons for and effects of illegal immigration — and think legal immigration generally helps the U.S.

When asked to identify up to two primary motivations for people crossing the U.S. border illegally, voters most commonly point to economic hardship and danger. Half of voters (50%) say people are fleeing poverty and seeking economic opportunity, and 38% say people are fleeing violence, persecution, or war. About one-third of voters (35%) believe people cross illegally because they want to take advantage of U.S. government services. 

A majority of Republicans (56%) cite government services as a primary motivation, compared with just 14% of Democrats and 31% of Independents. Democrats, meanwhile, are far more likely to cite humanitarian reasons: 53% say people are fleeing violence, compared with only 22% of Republicans.

 

 

There is strong, bipartisan support for legal immigration. Around two-thirds of voters (66%) say legal immigration generally helps the United States, compared with just 9% who say it generally hurts. This view holds across party lines: 71% of Democrats, 70% of Independents, and 59% of Republicans say legal immigration helps the country.

A majority of voters (62%) say illegal immigration generally hurts the United States, while only 11% say it helps and 22% say it neither helps nor hurts. 

 

 

Among the 62% of voters who say illegal immigration generally hurts the country, most are primarily concerned about the process by which people are immigrating, rather than the number of people crossing the border.

A majority of these voters (57%) say their main concern is that they want a safer, more orderly process, while 41% say their main concern is that they want lower numbers of immigrants overall. 

This split holds across partisan lines: 62% of Democrats, 60% of Independents, and 54% of Republicans who see illegal immigration as harmful prioritize the process over the numbers. 

 

 

When asked what effect increasing legal immigration would have on illegal immigration, half of voters (50%) say it would make no difference, and an additional 31% say it would cause illegal immigration to decrease. Just 13% think expanding legal immigration would cause illegal immigration to increase.

 

 

While the Trump administration has focused solely on reducing the number of immigrants in the United States, by both curbing illegal immigration and making legal pathways harder to access, these findings indicate that voters have more nuanced views. Among those who are concerned about illegal immigration, the majority want a safer, more orderly process, not simply fewer immigrants. And most voters, including most Republicans, do not believe that expanding legal immigration would make illegal crossings worse.

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Survey Methodology

From March 27 to 30, 2026, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,228 U.S. likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, geography, and recalled presidential vote. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error associated with the sample size is ±3 percentage points. Results for subgroups of the sample are subject to increased margins of error. Partisanship reflected in tabulations is based on self-identified party affiliation, not partisan registration. For more information, please visit dataforprogress.org/our-methodology.

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