I just got back from Louisiana, where I talked with Republican voters about the state’s wild Senate primary contest and sampled a few too many beignets. (More on that race below.)
One thing that struck me as I chatted with voters in the Baton Rouge area: Even in deeply conservative Louisiana, there were hints of uneasiness with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“He thinks he’s picking up criminals, but he’s picking up too many U.S. citizens, as far as I’m concerned,” said Wayles Bradley, 69, who said he had voted for President Trump but didn’t consider himself “far right.”
“I wasn’t excited about the fact that the previous administration let so many people in illegally, and that was a very big concern of mine,” said a man who identified himself only as Craig T., 61, and called himself a “die-hard Republican.”
But he added, “it just seems like we’ve kind of gone 180 degrees in the other direction. I was OK with that, but it just seems like there’s a lot of — maybe it’s a little bit of overreach.”
Turns out, that sentiment is not merely anecdotal. A new poll from The New York Times and Siena University found that 61 percent of voters overall said the tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement had “gone too far,” including nearly one in five Republicans, as my colleagues Jennifer Medina and Ruth Igielnik reported today. Seventy-one percent of independents said the same.
It is possible the backlash may grow as the Trump administration expands its immigration operations, pushing this week into Maine — a critical Senate battleground state.
Already, crackdowns in other cities have left indelible images, like the photograph of a 5-year-old boy in an oversized blue hat who was detained with his father by immigration authorities in the Minneapolis area this week.
Some Republicans now seem to be trying to tread a bit more carefully, with Vice President JD Vance on Thursday saying the administration was seeking to “turn down the temperature” in Minneapolis. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican who faces a difficult re-election contest, raised concerns about what she called “excessive” ICE tactics in an interview with Reuters.
And other Republicans, including Senator Jim Justice of West Virginia, have called for more training for ICE, Politico reported recently, even as they often stop short of criticizing the agency.
“They need to show more balance in enforcement and more compassion and empathy in enforcement,” Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate Pennsylvania Republican, told the outlet.
Of course, few Republican lawmakers are eager to voice opposition to Trump’s crackdown. And immigration — especially how to talk about enforcement — remains a challenging and divisive topic for Democrats.
The subject more broadly divides the country, too. The Times/Siena poll found that roughly half of voters support Trump’s deportations and his handling of the border with Mexico. Protest politics can also be complicated for Democrats to navigate.
As always, it will be worth watching how embattled lawmakers in tough seats talk about these subjects — if they do at all.
In the meantime, for those in the path of the storm, stay warm!
quote of the day
“I like Trump. He goes against Trump a lot.”
That was Christy Meyer, a retiree from Bayou Blue, La., on Senator Bill Cassidy. Today, I looked at how the Republican senator, in the thick of a primary against a Trump-backed challenger, is being squeezed from all sides. His predicament is a familiar and cautionary tale of what can happen when Republicans cross President Trump and then try to backpedal: It often ends badly.
A Texas test for the Democrats
What does it take for a Democrat to win statewide in Texas? A lot of luck, for starters.
But beyond that, two Senate candidates there, Representative Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico, are making radically different bets on how to succeed in a state that has dashed their party’s hopes time and again.
Here’s my colleagueJ. David Goodman on a race that, he writes, has become “a kind of high octane referendum on what direction the party should take, not only in a deeply red state but in swing states the party lost in 2024.”
Anti-abortion activists grow frustrated with Trump
As abortion opponents descended on the National Mall on Friday, many were “carrying a gnawing sense of frustration” toward President Trump, my colleagueElizabeth Dias writes. His messaging on abortion has been inconsistent, and some conservative activists believe he has not gone far enough in restricting the procedure.
“This is not the direction that we were hoping for,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a leading anti-abortion group.
Take Our Quiz
This question comes from a recent article in The Times. Click an answer to see if you’re right. (The link will be free.)
Which prominent Democrat who could run for president in 2028 called this week for an age limit of 75 for the president, cabinet officials, members of Congress and federal judges?
Ama Sarpomaa contributed reporting.
Katie Glueck is a Times national political reporter.
The post Are Republicans Growing a Little Uneasy About the ICE Raids? appeared first on New York Times.
