Trump defends immigration crackdown at State of Union as approval ratings plummet
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- President Trump defended his immigration crackdown at the State of the Union by highlighting crimes by undocumented immigrants.
- Democrats noted that Trump failed to mention Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot and killed in Minnesota by immigration agents.
- Public approval of Trump’s immigration enforcement policies has plummeted, according to some polls, with one poll finding that just 38% of respondents supported his approach.
WASHINGTON — To defend an increasingly unpopular immigration crackdown during his State of the Union speech, President Trump highlighted the victims of crimes perpetuated by undocumented immigrants.
But as Democrats pointed out, the president’s lengthy speech made no reference to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, U.S. citizens in Minneapolis who were shot and killed by immigration agents.
Recent polls show public approval of Trump’s immigration policies has fallen to record lows since he returned to the White House. One poll, released Feb. 17 by Reuters and the market research firm Ipsos, showed just 38% of respondents felt Trump was doing a good job on immigration.
Another poll, published last month by Fox News, showed 59% of voters say Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “too aggressive.”
President Trump struck a confident and defiant tone in a nearly two-hour State of the Union speech.
“As President Trump brags about his immigration enforcement at tonight’s State of the Union, I can think only of Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti and the three dozen people who have died in ICE custody since Trump took office,” Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) wrote on social media.
Within the first few minutes of his address on Tuesday night, Trump highlighted “the strongest and most secure border in American history, by far.” He also offered — at least momentarily — a softer tone, adding that “We will always allow people to come in legally, people that will love our country and will work hard to maintain our country.”
In reality, the administration has restricted legal immigration. It revoked humanitarian benefits for hundreds of thousands of people and placed an indefinite pause on all asylum applications filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Guests invited by various lawmakers to attend Trump’s speech offered dueling visions of the administration’s mass deportation effort.
Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) said he would bring the father and brother of Sarah Root, who was killed in 2016 after a drunk driver, who was in the U.S. illegally, crashed into her vehicle. Trump held an event Monday for “angel families,” those with a relative who was killed by an undocumented immigrant, and signed a proclamation honoring such victims of crimes.
More than 30 congressional Democrats boycotted President Trump’s State of the Union address. Others attended alternative events.
Democrats, meanwhile, invited immigrants, family members of those detained or deported, and U.S. citizens who were violently arrested by immigration agents.
Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano) said he was bringing the daughter of a Laguna Niguel couple deported last year to Colombia after their arrest during a routine check-in with ICE. And Rep. Jesus Garcia (D-Ill.) invited Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen shot five times by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum in Chicago.
On social media, the Department of Homeland Security shot back at Democrats with immigrant guests, saying the lawmakers are “once again prioritizing illegal aliens above the safety of American citizens.”
Federal immigration officers have shot more than a dozen people since last year. Among the others are Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a Los Angeles TikTok content creator who was shot in the arm, and Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen killed in Texas.
On Tuesday morning, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) held a news conference on “the state of immigration,” flanked by Christian pastors, in which she touted her Dignity Act, which would provide permanent legal status to immigrants who meet certain benchmarks.
“Throughout the Scripture, there are two kinds of leaders: those who persecute faith communities and those who protect them,” she said.
California Sen. Adam Schiff was among the Democrats to boycott Trump’s speech and cited immigration enforcement as one reason for his absence.
“I have not missed the State of the Union in the 25 years I’ve been in Congress, but we have never had a president violate the Constitution, the laws every day with seeming impunity,” Schiff told Meidas Touch outside the Capitol. “We’ve never had masked, armed, poorly trained agents victimizing our cities, demanding to see people’s papers.”
Trump repeated claims about immigration that have been debunked, such as his assertion that President Biden’s immigration polices allowed millions of people to pour into the U.S. from prisons and mental institutions.
Trump also highlighted that Democrats let in “11,888 murderers.” That number, an inaccurate description of federal data, refers to immigrants who, over the course of decades (including the first Trump administration) were convicted of homicide, usually after their arrival in the U.S. Those immigrants are listed on ICE’s “non-detained docket” typically because they are serving prison sentences.
One of the cases he pointed to was the death of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte. The man charged with her stabbing didn’t enter, as Trump said, “through open borders.” He was born in the U.S.
Turning to Minnesota, Trump said Somalis have defrauded $19 billion from American taxpayers — a disputed figure — and referred to them derogatorily as “Somali pirates.” Trump went beyond Somalis to disparage many immigrants, saying “there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception.”
In a rebuttal to the State of the Union address delivered on behalf of the Democratic Party, Sen. Alex Padilla accused Trump of plunging U.S. cities into violence and hindering the economy.
Trump also highlighted the case of Dalilah Coleman, 6, of Bakersfield, who was left with a traumatic brain injury after a 2024 car crash in Adelanto, Calif. He called on Congress to pass the Dalilah Law, which would bar states from granting commercial drivers licenses to immigrants without lawful status. He said, without proof, that “most illegal aliens do not speak English and cannot read even the most basic road signs.”
A year after Dalilah’s accident her family met with Partap Singh, the detained Indian immigrant responsible for the crash, at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield. Marcus Coleman, her father, told Fox26 News that the focus shouldn’t be on Singh’s legal status because similar accidents happen every day.
Also present Tuesday night were the parents of Sarah Beckstrom, the West Virginia National Guard member shot and killed in Washington, D.C., by an Afghan immigrant, as well as Andrew Wolfe, who also was shot and survived.
Trump awarded Wolfe and Beckstrom the Purple Heart. He called Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the man charged in the shooting, a “terrorist monster.” Lakanwal legally entered the U.S. from Afghanistan through a Biden administration program in 2021, and his asylum application was approved under the Trump administration last April.
Although President Trump mostly railed against illegal immigration during his campaign last year, his administration has put into motion a broad and unprecedented set of policy changes aimed at substantially limiting legal immigration.
Trump also called on Congress to end the partial government shutdown caused by an impasse over Homeland Security funding. Democrats want funding tied to reforms of ICE tactics and practices and were unmoved by Trump’s appeal.
“Republicans gave Trump’s masked, armed ICE agents more money than we give the Marine Corps. And he’s upset that Democrats won’t give more funding to his lawless army?” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San José) wrote on social media. “I won’t vote for another dollar until ICE is reined in.”
Turning his attention the fall’s midterm elections, Trump invited legislators to stand if they agreed with him that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
Republicans stood, offering one of the longest standing ovations of the night. Democrats remained seated.
Trump told Democrats they should be ashamed for not standing up.
“You have killed Americans!” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) yelled from the audience. “You should be ashamed.”
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