Poll: Miami Residents Sour on Trump Over Immigration, Economy

There's tension in the love affair between South Florida and its most famous and notorious resident, President Donald Trump, a Suffolk University poll indicates.

Between heavy-handed immigration enforcement actions, like running a tent detention center in the middle of the Florida Everglades, and economic decisions that have proved costly for everyday Americans, like steep tariffs trickling down from businesses to consumers, the poll reveals that Miami residents are souring on Trump. The findings from Suffolk University Political Research Center (SUPRC), which has conducted national and statewide polls since 2002, seem to mirror those from Gallup, which indicates Americans nationwide want more pathways to citizenship and less enforcement.

Most of the 500 adult City of Miami residents SUPRC polled last week expressed shifting opinions on Trump's immigration policies. After more than 55 percent of Miami-Dade County voters helped elect Trump last year on campaign promises of the "largest deportation" in U.S. history, a majority of Miami survey respondents — 52 percent of whom identified as Hispanic or Latino — now disapprove of his immigration polices in action.

Only 23 percent of respondents said the immigration raids were "just about right," 6 percent said Trump hasn't gone far enough, and 61 percent said enforcement has gone too far. Most respondents (59 percent) oppose Trump's termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, while 24 percent approved the action. A slightly smaller majority of respondents (52 percent) say they're less likely to support Trump after the recent deportations of Venezuelans, Cubans, and Argentinians living in Miami.

"The Trump administration's actions on these policies are turning off voters, including those in the crucial Hispanic demographic bloc," SUPRC Director David Paleologos said in a press release announcing the poll results.

Miamians seem equally turned off by the reality business show host-turned-politician's economic decisions. A year ago, most respondents (51 percent) said the economy was worse under former President Joe Biden, according to SUPRC. But 41 percent of respondents in the recent survey believe that Trump's economy is worse, versus 37 percent who thought the economy was worse under Biden.

A July Gallup poll found that Americans have grown more supportive of immigration over the past year, with the share favoring reduced immigration dropping from 55 percent to 30 percent.

A record-high 79 percent of U.S. adults say immigration is good for the country (a 15 percentage point rise from last year). Pollsters attributed the recent jump in perceptions to "a sharp increase among Republicans and, to a lesser extent, independents," according to Gallup. "These groups' views have essentially rebounded to 2020 levels after souring in the intervening years."

Sixty-two percent of the Gallup poll respondents agree with Miami residents' disapproval of Trump's immigration crackdown. The findings are based on a June poll of about 1,400 U.S. adults of various races weighted to match national demographics, according to Gallup.