A majority of U.S. adults now view Immigration and Customs Enforcement unfavorably, with negative opinions increasing over the past year among Democrats and Republicans, according to Pew Research Center.
The new analysis finds 56% have an unfavorable opinion of the agency, up from 49% in August 2025. Favorable views fell from 40% to 35%, while 9% said they were unsure.
ICE was the least favorably viewed of 12 federal agencies and departments included in the survey.
Party gaps persist as views shift
Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 67% view ICE favorably, down from 72% last year. Some 23% now view it unfavorably.
Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents remain much more negative: 84% view ICE unfavorably, compared with 78% last year. Just 9% view the agency favorably.
The partisan divide is wider for ICE than for many of the other agencies in the survey. In the broader federal-agency analysis, Pew found majorities in both parties viewed the National Park Service, National Weather Service and U.S. Postal Service favorably.
Across all adults, those three agencies had favorable ratings of 73%, 72% and 68%, respectively, compared with ICE's 35%.
Opinions differ by race and ethnicity
Unfavorable views of ICE are held by 69% of Black adults, 67% of Hispanic adults and 66% of Asian adults.
White adults are more divided: 49% view the agency unfavorably, up from 45% last year, while 42% view it favorably, down from 48%.
Among Republicans and Republican leaners, 71% of white adults have a favorable view, compared with 53% of Hispanic adults.
Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, unfavorable views reach 89% among white adults, 82% among Asian adults, 79% among Hispanic adults and 75% among Black adults.
How the survey was conducted
The findings come from Pew's American Trends Panel survey conducted Sept. 28 through Oct. 4. A total of 5,062 U.S. adults participated, but respondents were randomly assigned different question sets: the ICE question went to the 2,527-person first form.
The questionnaire asked for an overall opinion of named federal agencies, offering very or somewhat favorable, very or somewhat unfavorable, and not sure. Agency items were presented in random order.
SSRS conducted interviews online and by telephone in English and Spanish. Pew's probability-based panel is recruited through random sampling, with address-based recruitment used since 2018.
The methodology gives a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points for a half-sample of this size. The corresponding margins for Republican and Democratic half-samples are 3.4 and 3.2 points; smaller demographic groups have additional uncertainty.
The survey oversampled Hispanic adults, non-Hispanic Asian adults and adults ages 18 to 29, then weighted results back to their population shares. Weighting also accounts for sampling and nonresponse. The survey-level response rate was 87%, while the cumulative rate accounting for recruitment and panel attrition was 3%.
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