Chicago and suburban Democratic voters more likely to vote for candidates who fought ICE, poll finds
Democratic and independent voters still see immigration enforcement as a top issue in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs — and are more likely to support a candidate who protested President Donald Trump’s "Operation Midway Blitz," a new poll commissioned by a progressive coalition found.
Several candidates in congressional and state races have made their anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement stance a focal point of their campaigns, including the top U.S. Senate Democratic candidates. Tuesday’s primary elections will serve as a test of whether campaign messaging about fighting ICE worked — and how views on immigration have changed during Trump’s second term.
When voters were asked about ICE, 63% had an unfavorable view, while 31% had a favorable view. That broke down sharply by political parties, with 90% of Democrats viewing ICE unfavorably compared to 9% of Republicans. Among independents, the number was 62%.
In Chicago, 75% of those polled overall had an unfavorable view of ICE. In the rest of Cook County, 62% of those polled viewed ICE unfavorably, and in surrounding counties, 56% had an unfavorable view of ICE.
About 70% of likely Democratic primary voters who participated in the poll said a candidate’s position on ICE was the most important issue or very important to how they’d cast their vote. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they’d be more likely to support a candidate who has been active in anti-ICE protests.
About 14% of participants said they resisted ICE actions themselves, and about a quarter of the others said they wished they could have done more. Those who took action were more likely to be younger Chicago residents who consider themselves liberal voters.
Those actions included signing anti-ICE petitions (32%), contacting local officials (27%), joining vigils or protests (24%), tracking ICE locally (16%) and blowing whistles to alert their neighbors to ICE presence (11%).
The survey of 800 registered voters in the Chicago media market, including Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, McHenry and Will counties, was taken March 1-4. Interviews were conducted by live phone calls and text-to-web responses. According to the pollster, self-described Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the sample 44% to 22%. Another 33% identifying as independent voters.
Of those polled, 33% approved of the job Trump is doing as president, while 64% disapproved. On Trump's handling of immigration, 35% approved, while 63% said they disapproved.
The poll was commissioned by Hands Off Chicago, a coalition of progressive community groups including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Equality Illinois and the Chicago Federation of Labor. The group also conducted four in-person focus groups — two with white progressives and liberals, one with Latinas and another with Black men. They also conducted an online focus group with swing voters.
Exposure to ICE played a role in voters’ reaction to the agency, with 73% of those who saw raids in their neighborhoods holding an unfavorable view of the agency. The number declined for those who didn’t have raids in their neighborhood, with 51% of those voters viewing ICE unfavorably.
The poll also found that 29% of Latinos said they saw ICE agents in their communities personally, more than twice the rate of Black or white voters.
About 75% of poll respondents said immigration is good for the country, with 83% saying they support providing a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. without documentation.
At least 2,800 people were arrested in Illinois during "Operation Midway Blitz" between mid-September through mid-October, primarily in the Chicago area, according to ICE data obtained by the Data Deportation Project and statements about Border Patrol arrests made by the Justice Department in court. On Sept. 12, Silverio Villegas González, a father and cook originally from Mexico, was fatally shot at “close range” as he allegedly tried to flee a traffic stop. Operation Midway Blitz slowed in mid-November.