Democrats are not on the winning side of immigration, especially with the Los Angeles riots taking place earlier this month. As has been the case for President Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign and now throughout his second term, the immigration issue in particular is looking good for him. Polls consistently reflect that, while Democrats are meeanwhile doing themselves no favors. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) offered quite the narrative during a Sunday show appearance at the start of this week.
Late last week, Padilla was tossed out of a presser given by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Kristi Noem, which he interrupted and appeared to come off as a threat. He still was able to meet with Noem, though, and they even exchanged numbers. If Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) gets his way, although he's acknowledged that this is for the Senate to decide, Padilla could face a censure for his behavior.
As Johnson stressed, Padilla was behaving "wildly inappropriately," and it's not likely that coming off in such a way will help Democrats when it comes to their losing stance on immigration.
Three days after the incident, Padilla did a round of Sunday shows, including CBS News "Face the Nation." Last week, CBS News released a poll showing good news for Trump and Republicans on immigration, including when it comes to how by 54-46 percent, Americans approve of Trump's deportation efforts. Similarly, 53-47 percent recognize that the administration is prioritizing "dangerous criminals," with even 24 percent of Democratic respondents acknowledging as much.
Just as moderator Margaret Brennan did with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) last week, and CNN did with LA Mayor Karen Bass, Brennan brought up the poll findings and Americans' support for deportations with Padilla.
"We see in our polling on the policy front, we see in our polling that there still is broad support for President Trump's mass deportation policy. Our last CBS poll, as of last Sunday, showed 54 percent approval," Brennan mentioned, as she also mentioned coverage from The Washington Post. "There was an interesting Washington Post piece written by David Ignatius that was pretty sharp about Democrats saying that 'They've gotten the border issue so wrong for so long. It's political malpractice,' and that he was basically arguing Democrats are handing Trump the confrontation he wanted with the military, citing actions during the first administration," Brennan said about the piece.
"Do you think that he has a point there?" Brennan asked, also adding, "Because the public approval is so high in deportation."
"It depends on how you ask the question. If you ask the same people, do they think we should maintain due process in the United States of America, the answer is overwhelmingly yes. Do 'Dreamers' deserve better than the limbo that they find themselves in? Overwhelmingly, on a bipartisan basis, yes. And so I think it's important to break down three things. Number one, do we need a safe and secure, orderly, humane border?" Padilla claimed. "Absolutely, no disagreement. People seeking to come to the United States, whether it's to seek asylum on work pieces, etc., we definitely have to modernize that system and be more strategic in those capacities. But we can't forget the millions of long term residents, people who have been here, working, paying taxes, raising families, buying homes, contributing to the strength of our economy. They deserve better," Padilla answered.
Klobuchar gave pretty much the same answer, and also flubbed other answers about other poll findings that do not look good for her party, such as how even fellow Democrats don't find Democratic members in Congress to be "effective."
CBS: "The public approval is so high on deportation..."
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 15, 2025
SEN. PADILLA: "It depends how you ask the question." pic.twitter.com/RCwUNgllLI
As we covered last week about the poll's other findings on immigration:
A plurality, at 42 percent, say Trump's deportation efforts is making people in the United States "safer." Other than how those under 30 were evenly split, liberals (at 62 percent) and Democrats (at 57 percent), were the only demographics where more of these respondents claimed the deportation efforts made people "less safe."
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The last question of the poll also found that by 51-49 percent, respondents say they favor "immigration authorities searching your community for people who they believe are in the U.S. illegally." Not only did 87 percent of Republicans say so, but so did 21 percent of Democrats.
The poll also found that by 53-47 percent, Americans prefer the Republican Party to the Democratic Party on immigration. This is consistent with other polls showing such a lead for Republicans on this top issue. Even 11 percent of Democrats said they trusted the Republican Party more.
Brennan did not push back in any way, or even ask for follow up questions, but rather moved onto asking about security for lawmakers, given that a state representative in Minnesota had just been assassinated, and one of them was shot. The suspect, Vance Boetler, has since been apprehended in a manhunt and has been charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder.
Klobuchar likewise mentioned the "due process" findings, while Bass spoke to how Los Angeles residents would feel about such a question when it comes to the national poll. But again, these poll numbers aren't new or surprising, which is why Padilla's spin comes off as even more desperate, just as it did when Bass and Klobuchar tried to offer their narratives.
On Sunday, an NBC News poll was released. Even as the outlet's headline stressed less than good news for Trump, the subheadline acknowledged that "Immigration remains Trump’s strongest issue..." USA Today also went with highlighting Trump's immigration numbers in their headline about the latest poll.
According to the poll, Trump has a 51-49 percent approval rating on this handling of immigration, making it his strongest issue.
As the section on "Immigration remains Trump's strongest issue" of the NBC News write-up read in part:
A majority of Americans said they approve of Trump’s handling of border security and immigration, though the public is closely split on even his strongest issue, with 51% approving of his handling of immigration and border security and 49% disapproving.
While the survey was being conducted, Trump deployed National Guard troops and Marines to the Los Angeles area due to mounting protests over Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the county. He has spoken repeatedly about the issue in recent days.
While the public overall is divided on Trump’s immigration policy, his base is motivated by the issue and his handling of it. While 9% of Americans overall said immigration is the issue that matters most to them right now, 20% of MAGA supporters said immigration is the most important issue, second only to the economy.
Trump’s overall numbers on immigration were similar to the April poll, but Republicans, MAGA Republicans and independents were all slightly more likely to say now that they strongly approve of the way Trump is handling border security and immigration.
During NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Steve Kornacki analyzed the results of their latest poll, prompting a "wow" from moderator Kristen Welker.
"This is interesting, on immigration and the border, slight majority approval for Donald Trump's actions, though we want to say not all of this poll was taken as these protests were playing out in Los Angeles. So still a bit of a question going forward how that shakes out. But again, we've seen stronger numbers for Trump on that area than every other area of his presidency so far," he shared as part of his analysis.
NBC News Chief Data Analyst Steve Kornacki analyzes a new NBC News Decision Desk poll showing President Donald Trump’s second-term approval rating holding at 45%, though a majority supports his handling of immigration and the border. https://t.co/lco393pWBR pic.twitter.com/Ztj5qa1qeT
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 16, 2025
The NBC News Decision Desk poll was conducted May 30-June with 19,410 adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
According to RealClearPolling, with this poll included, Trump has a +2 spread on immigration.
