“The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done,” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday, adding: “Remember, you are loved and respected in America.” However, polls show that Americans have grown more critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a year marked by four fatal shootings in about six months.

Trump’s post came two days after the death of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, and one week after ICE officers shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas. Both men were shot in their vehicles, like Renée Good in Minneapolis in January. Her death, and the death of Alex Pretti that same month, coincided with a sharp decline in support for ICE, according to polling at the time. 

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Americans believed that ICE had “gone too far” in its enforcement of immigration laws, up from 54% the previous June, according to an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll from February. 

While Democrats and Independents showed the highest levels of dissatisfaction, with 93% (up from 83%) and 71% (up from 59%) saying they thought ICE actions had “gone too far,” Republicans also showed an increase, at 27% (up from 20%).

About 62% of respondents believed that ICE was making Americans somewhat less safe or much less safe, the poll showed, while 60% said they disapproved of the job ICE is doing. 

The surveys suggest Trump’s characterization overstates public sentiment. While Republicans remain broadly supportive of ICE—with 3 in 4 agreeing that ICE was doing a good job as of February—Americans overall expressed more negative than positive views of the agency and its recent enforcement tactics.

An AP-NORC poll from the same month supported the findings, showing that 6 in 10 adults believed Trump had gone too far by sending ICE officers into American cities. 

Read More: ‘Alarming and Frightening’: ICE Officers Involved in Fatal Shooting in Maine

After Guerrero’s death, DHS sent a directive telling agents to take a break in making traffic stops in pursuit of undocumented immigrants, sources who were not authorized to speak publicly told TIME, but the directive was later reversed.

“We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement to TIME on Tuesday. “We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics.”

Trump’s post the next morning appeared to contradict the instruction.

“We must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” he wrote. “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”

White House officials confirmed with TIME that the pause on traffic stops had been reversed as of Wednesday. 

Trump has repeatedly implied that immigrants are prone to criminal activity, despite evidence that immigrants commit significantly less crime than native-born Americans. That unfounded claim was repeated in his post. 

“The Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25,000,000 people to pour into our Country, unchecked and unvetted. Many were Criminals,” he wrote, referencing unsubstantiated figures. 

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that net immigration totaled about 8.3 million from 2021 to 2024, while Customs and Border Protection reported over 10 million encounters with individuals attempting to enter the U.S. The House Committee on Homeland Security, citing Border Patrol, estimated that another 2 million people likely crossed the border undetected during that time period. 

Read More: ICE Reverses Plan to Halt Vehicle Stops After Trump Complains

Trump’s assertion comes as Americans express increasingly positive views of immigration.

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of adults believed immigration was a good thing, according to a Gallup poll published July 9, which is above the 25-year average of 67%. While Americans were nearly equally split on whether they would prefer to see immigration levels increase, decrease, or stay the same, backing for hiring additional Border Patrol agents fell 10 points since 2025. 

Taken together, polling this year suggests that Americans distinguish between immigration itself, the enforcement of immigration laws, and the resources and tactics used to carry out that enforcement. A Reuters-Ipsos poll from January showed that 7 in 10 Americans are “paying close attention” to federal efforts to deal with unauthorized entry into the U.S. 

With protests erupting this week throughout Maine, as well as in cities like New York, Boston, and Los Angeles, there is a widening call for oversight of and accountability for ICE—including the mandatory use of the body cameras that were funded through a $20 million congressional appropriation earlier this year.

A majority of Americans are in favor of requiring agents to wear body cameras (84%), requiring agents to have judicial warrants to enter homes (69%), banning agents from entering schools or churches (66%), banning agents from stopping people based solely on their race or ethnicity (64%)—a measure the shadow docket of the Supreme Court permitted in September 2025—and banning agents from wearing face masks (55%), the Reuters-Ipsos poll found.