{"id":177954,"date":"2026-03-04T16:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/177954\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T16:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:14:09","slug":"florida-voters-split-on-trumps-immigration-policy-most-disapprove-of-ice-unf-poll-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/177954\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida voters split on Trump\u2019s immigration policy; most disapprove of ICE, UNF poll finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Immigration enforcement remains a central divisive issue as the 2026 midterm elections approach.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not too surprising that respondents to a new poll from the University of North Florida\u2019s Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL) were fairly evenly split when it came to opinions on federal and state immigration policies and border enforcement.<\/p>\n

For national immigration issues, a total of 49% of respondents — who are all likely voters in 2026 — said they disapprove of the way the Trump administration is handling immigration in the U.S., either strongly (41%) or somewhat (8%), while 48% percent said they strongly or somewhat approve. <\/p>\n

RELATED | UNF Poll: Likely voters in Florida still focused on affordability & most support eliminating property taxes<\/a><\/p>\n

A majority of respondents (55%) disapprove of the job Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is doing, with a total of 42% approving. <\/p>\n

Also split were opinions on ICE, with 48% strongly disapproving. <\/p>\n

While Trump\u2019s overall favorability is highest among his 2024 voters, 9% of those who voted to return Trump to office expressed disapproval of his immigration policies, and 14% disapprove of ICE. <\/p>\n

An even greater percentage of all Republicans in the sample (including those who did not report voting for Trump in 2024) expressed disapproval of the federal government\u2019s handling of immigration, with 14% disapproving of the Trump Administration\u2019s immigration policy and 19% disapproving of ICE. <\/p>\n

More detention facilities in Florida?<\/p>\n

Respondents were also asked whether they\u2019re OK with more immigration detention facilities being built in Florida — possibly in the panhandle and central Florida.<\/p>\n

A majority of respondents (57%) expressed opposition, with 48% strongly opposed and 9% somewhat opposed. <\/p>\n

Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they support building new facilities, either strongly (23%) or somewhat (16%). Support is highest among Republicans, with 71%, while 25% are opposed. <\/p>\n

Seventy-six percent of 2024 Trump voters said they support building more ICE facilities in Florida, and 21% are opposed. <\/p>\n

\u201cFloridians seem more willing to direct their dissatisfaction with immigration policy to ICE than Trump,\u201d said Dr. Sean Freeder, PORL director and UNF professor of political science. \u201cBuilding detention facilities in Florida is particularly unpopular, which may give pause to state officials who wish to partner with the federal government in their efforts.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cuban-American support for Trump<\/p>\n

Among respondents of Hispanic or Latino ethnic background, Cuban respondents tend to have greater support for Trump, his immigration policies, and ICE, compared to Hispanic and Latino respondents of other nationalities. <\/p>\n

Overall, Trump\u2019s favorability is 25 percentage points higher among Cubans than non-Cubans, and they differ on immigration policy and ICE favorability by 15 points and 22 points, respectively. <\/p>\n

It should be noted that the subgroup of 41 respondents of Cuban descent is too small a sample size to make precise point estimates with certainty; however, large differences across groups can still be observed. <\/p>\n

For more results from the poll, including choices in the 2026 midterm elections, see the poll below:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Immigration enforcement remains a central divisive issue as the 2026 midterm elections approach. So it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1571,1917,409,1841,116,118,117,2159,99,412,5908],"class_list":["post-177954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-affordable-housing","tag-consumer","tag-donald-trump","tag-immigration","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-money","tag-politics","tag-ron-desantis","tag-university-of-north-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}