Support for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement among Trump's core "MAGA" base has remained remarkably robust despite a string of controversial incidents, including fatal shootings of migrants by agents and the recent revocation of temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Haitians. Prominent Republican figures, including Steve Bannon, have publicly demanded faster deportations, while more extreme voices have used dehumanising rhetoric about migrants, suggesting the base's appetite for enforcement has not been dampened by recent controversies.

Two ICE agents separately shot and killed migrants this month, in Houston, Texas, and Biddeford, Maine, while the agency has also faced scrutiny for tracking critics online and obstructing health inspections of detention centres. Nonetheless, polling from YouGov and the Public Religion Research Institute found roughly three-quarters of Republicans hold favourable views of ICE, support increased funding, and back internment camps for undocumented immigrants; only 51% of Republicans said they had even heard about the fatal shootings. Trump himself reportedly overrode an internal ICE memo suspending vehicle stops after backlash from his base, reaffirming that the agency was "loved and respected".