After an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis one week in the past, reactions on social media and amongst politicians and political influencers quickly polarized.
But how do the relaxation of Americans – i.e. those that didn’t so rapidly weigh in – really feel?
We’ve now obtained a greater sense, thanks to a few high-quality polls launched in the final 24 hours – together with a new poll from NCS.
Here are some things we are able to say.
You might have been forgiven for considering the ICE shooting can be a 50-50 challenge – or near it. But it’s not.
The NCS ballot exhibits 56% of US adults stated the ICE agent’s use of drive was “inappropriate,” in comparison with simply 26% who stated it was “appropriate.”
Similarly, Quinnipiac University and Yahoo News-YouGov polls launched Tuesday examined whether or not folks thought the shooting was “justified.” The former confirmed registered voters stated it was “not justified” by 53%-35%, whereas the latter confirmed Americans stated it wasn’t justified 52%-27%.
So three polls, all with margins of between 18 and 30 factors in opposition to ICE. That’s a fairly decisive verdict in public opinion.
Each ballot confirmed independents stated the shooting was incorrect by at the very least a 2-to-1 margin. And Democrats had been considerably extra prone to object (87% in the NCS ballot) than Republicans had been to face by the ICE agent (61%).
Most every part the Trump administration is doing as of late is unpopular. But these numbers counsel ICE’s use of drive is extra unpopular than most. And it’s not at the same time as if Trump supporters are united.
But it’s value emphasizing that the Trump administration didn’t simply say the ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, was justified in shooting Good.
It went fairly a bit additional, instantly casting Good’s actions as “domestic terrorism” and saying she deliberately focused the ICE agent along with her automotive.
It’s wanting fairly clear that that’s out of step with the public’s interpretation of occasions.
The Yahoo-YouGov ballot exhibits simply 24% of Americans stated Good was committing home terrorism. Only 52% of Republicans agreed with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on that.
Some in the administration have sometimes seemed to walk back Noem’s claim, permitting that maybe Good didn’t intentionally goal the officer. “Look, I don’t know what’s in a person’s heart or in a person’s head,” Vice President JD Vance conceded final week when pressed on Good’s intent
In case there was any doubt how huge this information was, the polls present Americans are overwhelmingly paying shut consideration.
The Yahoo ballot confirmed 63% stated that they had heard “a lot” about the state of affairs. And the Quinnipiac ballot confirmed 82% of voters stated they’d seen a video of the shooting.
Those are large numbers in an American public that usually tunes out political information.
For occasion, even after the US ousted a international chief (Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro) earlier this month, simply 42% in a Reuters-Ipsos ballot stated that they had heard “a lot” about it.
Marquette University Law School often requested such questions all through 2025. Out of dozens of information occasions examined, only a handful garnered that much attention.
Indeed, the hazard on this episode for the administration is not only that Americans disagree with its posture on the ICE agent. As I wrote last week, the political threat is that this turns into a flashpoint in the debate over ICE and President Donald Trump’s deportation marketing campaign.
ICE and Trump’s deportations have polled poorly for some time now, however we haven’t seen an enormous backlash in Congress or the streets.
In current days, we’ve began to see some key influencers like Joe Rogan extra vocally criticizing the ICE raids. Rogan, who supported Trump in 2024, likened ICE’s actions to the “Gestapo.”
The new polls present ICE’s general numbers haven’t modified a lot; folks disliked the manner the company is imposing immigration legal guidelines earlier than the Minneapolis shooting (57%-39% in a July Quinnipiac ballot), and so they nonetheless dislike it right this moment (57%-40%).
But the numbers additionally counsel the episode might add some urgency to the public’s pre-existing issues about Trump’s deportations.
The NCS ballot requested a follow-up for individuals who labeled the shooting “inappropriate.” It requested whether or not they believed this was simply an remoted incident or whether or not it “reflects bigger problems with the way ICE is operating.”
Fully 9 in 10 critics of this episode selected the latter. So a 51% majority of Americans stated not solely that the ICE agent’s actions had been incorrect on this state of affairs, however they connected it to extra systemic issues with the company.
Also putting had been a pair of ballot findings testing views of ICE raids general:
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Americans stated 51%-31% that ICE’s enforcement actions are making cities “less safe” quite than “more safe,” per the NCS ballot.
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They additionally stated 54%-34% that ICE raids in main US cities are “doing more harm than good,” per the Yahoo ballot.
That’s two polls exhibiting folks assume these raids are literally counter-productive – each by 20-point margins.
We’ve seen proof earlier than that Americans assume Trump overreached with his deportations and don’t like his administration’s techniques. But not essentially like this.
There’s a budding motion in the Democratic Party to potentially target Noem for impeachment.
The polls counsel her political inventory is declining.
Americans disapproved of Noem 61%-38% in the NCS ballot and registered voters disapproved 52%-36% in the Quinnipiac ballot.
The latter prompt Noem has misplaced floor in current months. A July Quinnipiac ballot confirmed Noem 11 factors underwater (50%-39%), in comparison with 16 factors underwater right this moment.