ICE and immigration tactics take center stage for Arizona swing voters

Arizona swing voters say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) needs reform, and concerns about immigration agents’ tactics remain top of mind for key voters who supported President Donald Trump in 2024.

In a discussion with the Swing Voter Project, NPR talked to 14 Arizona voters: four identified as Democrats, three as Republicans, and seven as Independents.

Rich Thau, president of Engagious and moderator of the Swing Voter Project, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss what came of the conversation.

These included two focus groups of seven people each, with each meeting lasting approximately 90 minutes. This involved those who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and then switched to Donald Trump in 2024.

“They very much want ICE to do a job, they want to keep America safe, and their neighborhood safe,” Thau said, “…but they think what’s happening now is overreach by ICE, and they want ICE to dial it back.”

Of the 14 people involved in the focus groups, 12 thought ICE was overreaching its authority, and two thought ICE was doing things exactly the right way.

“This month we talked to people in Arizona,” Thau explained, “…we found that nine of the 14 knew people personally…who were affected by ICE directly. I asked the same question of Pennsylvania swing voters in January. Only two out of 14 knew anybody personally affected by ICE. So there’s a big difference when you have ICE physically present in the neighborhoods of the respondents.”

Thau emphasized that none of the 14 individuals involved in the focus groups want to see ICE abolished. He explained that Democrats pushing to abolish ICE is a complete non-starter with the swing voters they need in November.

“…for these swing voters,” Thau said, “…most of them told us that they think the economy is worse now than when President Trump took over last January…it’s an ongoing stress…they’re stressed about housing, they’re stressed about groceries…name it and they have an economic anxiety about it.”