As the new Trump administration begins to carry out immigration enforcement, Americans largely agree that at least some immigrants living in the United States illegally should be deported, in particular those who have committed violent crimes. However, less consensus exists on how the government should carry out deportations.

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand the American public’s views of immigration enforcement policies and the personal impact they have on U.S. adults.

For this analysis, we surveyed 5,123 adults from Feb. 24 to March 2, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Surveys were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the questions used for this report, the topline and the survey methodology