Trump ramps up his unpopular immigration crackdown

President Donald Trump is continuing to prioritize his anti-immigration agenda despite multiple polls in recent days showing that most Americans disapprove of it.

On Monday, the White House announced that Trump will sign two executive orders, one directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to draw up a list of sanctuary cities and states that are not complying with the federal government’s deportation orders, and another that will boost law enforcement capabilities to arrest immigrants.

At an early morning briefing alongside border czar Tom Homan, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to justify the plan by reiterating the administration’s go-to—and false—trope that undocumented immigrants disproportionately commit crimes in the US. “It’s quite simple,” Leavitt said. “Obey the law, respect the law, and don’t obstruct federal immigration officials and law-enforcement officials when they are simply trying to remove public safety threats from our nation’s communities.” (In reality, research shows undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than US citizens.) The orders come just days after a federal judge blocked federal officials from carrying out a previous threat to withhold funding from 16 sanctuary jurisdictions.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump will direct the Justice Department to open civil-rights cases against jurisdictions that he believes favor undocumented immigrants over US citizens. The Journal reports that the executive order cites at least 25 states that have adopted laws that provide immigrants with lower in-state tuition rates at public universities than those available to U.S. citizens. It is not clear which executive order the directive will be part of.

Also on Monday, the White House debuted a set of lawn signs that appeared to highlight undocumented people who have been arrested since Trump’s return to power. The White House account on X posted a video of the signs set to Michael Bublé’s rendition of Nina Simone’s song “Feeling Good.” (A representative for Bublé—who is Canadian and has spoken out against Trump’s desire to annex the country as a 51st state—did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether Bublé has a statement on the video.)

Under Joe Biden, criminal illegal aliens called the shots. Under President Trump, it’s a new dawn, a new day, a new life for America — and we’re feeling good. 🎶 pic.twitter.com/pD7hf1A07G

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 28, 2025

All this seems like an attempt to distract from the fact that, as I reported yesterday, Trump’s poll numbers are in the toilet on the cusp of his 100th day in office, which will come on Tuesday. The polls—from NBC, ABC, and CNN—show that the majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s second term thus far, with broad disapproval on immigration and border security specifically. His administration’s authoritarian approach has included arresting a judge for allegedly helping a man without legal immigration status avoid arrest while in her courtroom; deporting Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador without due process; and seeking to deport international students who have protested Israel’s war in Gaza, as my colleagues have covered.

Spokespeople for the White House did not respond to requests for comment Sunday about Trump’s poll numbers. But Trump did what he usually does when he’s confronted with unfavorable polls: He claimed they can’t be trusted. In an early morning Truth Social post, Trump called them “FAKE POLLS FROM FAKE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS.”