Minnesota Poll: Most oppose Trump’s immigration policies — but broad support outside metro

A new poll finds stark geographic divides over President Donald Trump’s top domestic issue: While the majority of Minnesotans oppose the president’s immigration policies, there’s broad support outside the metro, even for deportations without court hearings.

The latest Minnesota Star Tribune/Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication Minnesota Poll found that 55% of Minnesotans polled oppose Trump’s immigration moves while 43% support them.

Suburban respondents outside Hennepin and Ramsey counties were divided on Trump’s immigration policies, with 51% saying they support them, and in greater Minnesota, most strongly back the president on this issue.

Poll respondent Lynn Franklin, a 68-year-old retired road construction worker from Stearns County, said his own views on immigration, which include strong support for Trump’s mass deportation push, have nothing to do with the nationalities of most recent arrivals.

“I don’t care if you’re Mexican, you’re Somalian — I don’t care where you’re from,” said Franklin, a Republican and descendant of Irish immigrants to North Dakota. “We’re a country of immigrants; I understand that. Just do it legally.”

(Scroll to the end of this article for full results for each question. More information about the poll methodology, a demographic breakdown of the sample and a map of the poll regions can be found at startribune.com/methodology.)

Suburban respondents outside Hennepin and Ramsey counties were divided on Trump’s immigration policies, with 51% saying they support them.

The poll also found that a majority — 53% of poll respondents — disapprove of the Trump administration’s recent push to deport undocumented immigrants without a court hearing. Yet 92% of Republicans back the president on that question.

The poll found broader support for legal status for undocumented immigrants who don’t have criminal records. Nearly all respondents who described themselves as Democrats or leaning DFL think those without criminal records should be allowed to stay in the U.S., and more than a third of Republicans agreed.

That difference between overwhelming Republican support for Trump’s policies but less support for deportations of people without criminal records is likely due to how the poll’s questions were asked, said Ryan Dawkins, a poll respondent from Northfield who is also an assistant professor of political science at Carleton College.

“When asked about specific policy issues, public opinion tends to be quite nuanced — and generally quite liberal," he said.

But, he added, questions that have “partisan cues,” like Trump’s name, elicit responses that are more in line with partisan loyalties.

Trump has moved to swiftly crack down on unauthorized immigration across the country and in Minnesota since taking office in January. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided a St. Louis Park plant and federal officials said there would be “no safe spaces” for companies that use undocumented labor.

They’ve arrested some undocumented immigrants who face unrelated charges at the Hennepin County Courthouse and dramatically expanded immigration detention in Minnesota as part of Trump’s mass deportation push. Agents, some wearing masks, have also targeted tourists and immigrants with legal status elsewhere in the U.S.

“It’s changing the whole dynamic of our country,” said Joni Anderson, 62, a Democrat from Moorhead who responded to the poll. “We were based on people immigrating here. It just seems wrong.”

Anderson said her grandparents immigrated from Norway and settled in Underwood, east of Fergus Falls, to farm.

“My grandparents were wonderful people that everybody loved,” she said. “And I think that could be true for anybody from any country.”

Minnesota’s first wave of immigrants were primarily European, but in recent decades more have come from Mexico, Somalia, India and Laos.

Tim Leon, 65, of Windom said he’s a conservative Republican who supports Trump’s approach to immigration, including deploying the National Guard to quell protests in Los Angeles.

Leon, who said he’s Mexican American, said his grandparents came to the U.S. legally and became citizens, and he believes others should do the same.

“As long as they’re doing the right thing, getting an education, living the American life, not trying to change America into the country that they came from,” Leon said, “those are all good things.”

Until the 1920s, the U.S. had relatively few restrictions on legal immigration. But the system is now “extremely restrictive,” wrote David Bier, author of an immigration policy analysis published by the libertarian Cato Institute.

“By design, it excludes the vast majority of potential immigrants,” he wrote.

Congress last tried to pass a comprehensive immigration bill more than a decade ago. It failed. Trump successfully pressured congressional Republicans to sink a bipartisan border security bill in 2024.

The poll’s findings are based on interviews with 800 registered Minnesota voters conducted from June 16 to 18, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The results show slightly more Minnesotans object to Trump’s immigration policies compared to his first term, when a 2018 Minnesota Poll found 52% disapproved and 42% approved.

Allison Kite of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.

Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy Inc. interviewed 800 Minnesota registered voters between June 16 and June 18, 2025. Findings from questions about President Trump and immigration are below. Totals may not add up to 100% due to rounding. Details about how the poll was conducted, the demographics of the 800 respondents and a map of the Minnesota regions used in this poll can be found at startribune.com/methodology.