President Trump’s favorability rating in deep blue New York hit a record high, according to a new poll — as voters overwhelmingly support his crackdown on illegal immigration.
Trump’s approval rating in the Empire State climbed to 41% in the latest Siena College poll released Monday, matching his highest ever in the survey.
The last time the Republican president recorded a favorability rating that high in his mainly Democratic home state was the month before he took office for the first time in December 2016.
Trump’s approval rating in New York has been buoyed by his tough-on-immigration stance, with a whopping 79% of voters in the Siena survey supporting his effort to deport illegal migrants living in the US who have been convicted of a crime.
A majority (54%) also believe Trump will do an “excellent” or “good” job securing the country’s borders.
“President Trump has not been popular in his former home state for more than a decade. And while that is still true, Trump now has his best favorability rating, 41-56%, since the month before he took office the first time, December 2016, when his favorability rating was 41-53%,” Sienna pollster Steven Greenberg said of the results.
“Currently, Republicans view him favorably, 83-13%, while Democrats view him unfavorably, 17-81%. Independents are in the middle, 48-46%,” he added.
The results come as heavily armed federal immigration agents stormed through the Big Apple last Tuesday, targeting migrants with warrants for murder, kidnapping and other heinous crimes.
Among those arrested was Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 25, an alleged ringleader of the notorious Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, whom immigration officers took into custody at an Ogden Avenue apartment in the Bronx.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday is slated for his first trip to the US-Mexico border, where he is set to emphasize the surge in military support for US Customs and Border Protection’s operations there.
The Trump administration has ramped up military presence at the border — with 1,500 active-duty troops deployed last month to join about 2,200 US National Guard and Reserve personnel already in place.
Troops have been tasked with enhancing security and assisting in the airlift of 5,000 undocumented migrants from detention centers in San Diego and El Paso.
The administration is poised to start more sweeping crackdowns, such as deportation flights to the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and has already acted on its promises by using military aircraft to deport migrants to Latin America.
“Whatever is needed at the border will be provided,” Hegseth said at his Pentagon arrival last week.
“The Defense Department will support the defense of the territorial integrity of the United States of America’s southern border, including reservists, National Guardsmen, and active-duty [personnel] in compliance with the Constitution and the laws of our land, and the directives of the commander-in-chief,” he said.
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