Americans want immigration policy to be competent and decent. Both parties should take note.
July 18, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDT29 minutes ago
5 min
Demonstrators gather in front of U.S. federal agents blocking a road leading to an agricultural facility in Camarillo, California, on July 10. (Daniel Cole/Reuters)
You have seen the blizzard of scary images — immigration agents taking parents away in front of their kids, masked officers raiding neighborhoods, men detained in remote centers — but here is the surprising fact behind the mayhem: Donald Trump has deported fewer people per month than Barack Obama did, and barely more than Joe Biden during a similar span last year, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data obtained by NBC News.
Trump signals that his administration is fearlessly executing mass deportations. But the numbers reveal a different reality. Since February, his administration has deported 14,700 people per month on average, according to NBC News. That’s far below Obama’s peak in 2013, when he deported 36,000 per month. And it’s not even close to the Trump administration’s reported goal of deporting 1 million people in a year.
Trump’s deportation dragnet is less effective than those of his predecessors because it is chaotic, theatrical and detached from the systems that work. Rather than effectively coordinating with local law enforcement, following rules, laws and norms, or expanding and expediting legal processing, Trump has prioritized optics over outcomes. What his administration lacks in strategy, it tries to compensate for with spectacle — sweeping up schoolchildren, targeting families, broadcasting raids on social media.
But this is a rare case of Trump’s Teflon wearing thin. Immigration was once his strongest issue politically. Today, it is fast becoming a vulnerability. According to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, Trump’s approval on immigration has dropped sharply, with 55 percent disapproving and only 40 percent approving. A recent Gallup poll showed that the number of Americans who view immigration as a good thing has risen from 64 percent in 2024 to 79 percent now, a record high. Even more telling is the erosion of support among independents, many of them suburban voters who had once been sympathetic to a tougher border stance but are now recoiling at scenes of cruelty and overreach.
s had a functioning political system, this would be the moment for comprehensive immigration reform. The outlines of a deal are obvious and have been for years. First, the asylum system must be totally overhauled. It cannot remain open-ended and unmanageable. There should be clear numerical caps and rules about where and how asylum can be claimed — preferably outside the United States, through a structured process. Second, those who have lived in the U.S. for years, paying taxes and raising families, should be given a path to legal status. Deporting them makes no economic or moral sense. And third, America needs to expand high-skilled immigration if it wants to remain at the cutting edge of technology and innovation.
This is the litmus test for Trump. Is he actually interested in solving America’s immigration problem? Or does he prefer it as a political cudgel? When he was out of office, he chose the latter — torpedoing a bipartisan Senate immigration deal that would have toughened border enforcement and reformed the asylum process. Now that he is back in power, he has another chance. Will he take it?
Democrats, too, face a crucial choice. The mistake many of them made during Trump’s first term was to define themselves primarily in symbolic opposition to his nasty rhetoric — promising not to enforce the laws and chanting to abolish ICE. That stance energized the base but alienated moderates; in fact, it alienated the country. Remember, this is the issue that has fueled Trump’s movement most since he came down that golden escalator in 2015, and it has helped bring him into the White House a second time. The recent shift in public opinion on immigration is real but fragile. If the Democrats go crazy left, the public will turn against them again. To earn back trust, Democrats should sit solidly in the center — advocating secure borders, strong law enforcement, humane treatment and realistic reforms. That’s good politics. More important, it is the right set of policies for the country.
America is a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of laws. Immigration reform must honor both traditions. It is finally time to replace fearmongering with solutions, and to turn away from performance and toward policy. The polls suggest that the country is ready. Are its leaders?
Fareed Zakaria writes a foreign affairs column for The Post. He is also the host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS.