Big survey

Part of: How ICE divides Americans, Trump approval slump, Greenland, Iran, Venezuela, tariffs, and the Fed: January 16-19, 2026 Economist/YouGov Poll

How watching video of the Minneapolis ICE shooting affects Americans' polarized views

Americans are divided in their opinion about anti-ICE protests, though majorities oppose sending federal troops to Minneapolis and believe that peaceful protests against ICE should be allowed. More Americans view ICE's shooting of Renee Good as not justified than as justified; nearly two-thirds think the agent who shot her should be investigated. Opinions on the incident involving Good are highly polarized by party, but being shown videos of the incident slightly reduces gaps in how Democrats and Republicans interpret the events that occurred and whether the shooting was justified.

What you need to know about Americans' views on ICE and the recent shooting in Minneapolis, as of the January 16 - 19, 2026 Economist / YouGov Poll:

• By a margin of 15 percentage points, more Americans oppose than support sending federal troops to Minneapolis (52% vs. 37%)
• Only slightly more approve than disapprove of recent protests against ICE actions (47% vs. 44%) and by a similar margin Americans classify the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis as mostly peaceful rather than mostly violent (43% vs. 40%)
• A large majority (77%) of Americans say that peaceful protests against ICE should be allowed in Minneapolis, including 93% of Democrats and 63% of Republicans

• Equal shares of Americans support and oppose abolishing ICE (45% vs. 45%)

• 73% of Americans — including 78% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans — say they had seen video of an ICE agent shooting Renee Good in Minneapolis
• What do Americans believe occurred leading up to ICE agent Jonathan Ross's shooting of Good?
  • While only 15% of Americans say that Good obeyed orders given to her by ICE agents, less than one-third (29%) say she threatened the agents. 25% of Democrats and 4% of Republicans say she obeyed orders, while 3% of Democrats and 61% of Republicans say she threatened agents
  • While Americans are divided on whether Good's car made contact with an ICE agent — 37% say it did and 39% say it didn't — only 25% say she was trying to run over an agent with her car. 26% say an ICE agent was injured during the incident. Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say Good's car hit an ICE agent (67% vs. 13%), that she was trying to run over an ICE agent (53% vs. 3%), and that ICE agents were injured (54% vs. 4%)
  • More say that ICE acted unprofessionally during the encounter than professionally (53% vs. 32%). 90% of Democrats and 17% of Republicans say ICE acted unprofessionally
• About twice as many Americans believe the shooting of Good was not justified than say it was justified (56% vs. 29%)
• 66% of Americans think the ICE agent who shot Good should be investigated; 23% say he should not be
• More say Renee Good's widow should not be investigated than say she should be (46% vs. 36%)
• Before respondents were asked questions about the encounter between ICE and Good, a randomly selected half of them were asked if they would agree to watch two brief videos of the incident
  • 90% of respondents who were asked to view the videos consented to do so, including 93% of Republicans and 89% of Democrats giving consent
  • 95% of people who had previously seen videos of the incident and 76% who hadn't were willing to see the videos shown in the survey
• How did being shown videos of the encounter affect Democrats' and Republicans' evaluations of what happened?
  • Democrats who were shown videos of the incident during the survey were more likely than those who were not given the option to view the videos to say Good did not follow ICE orders (47% vs. 27%). However, these results may slightly overstate the effect of being shown the videos during the survey, since Democrats who did not give consent to view the videos are excluded from this comparison and are distinct from those who did give consent. One way to control for this effect is to look only at Democrats who had previously viewed video of the incident. Among this group, we find a smaller gap in the share saying Good did not follow orders: 44% among those shown the videos during the survey and 32% among those who were not given the option to view them
    • Among Independents, the gap was similar (65% who were shown the videos say Good didn't follow orders, compared to 45% who weren't given the option to see the videos)

• Republicans who were shown videos of the incident during the survey were more likely than those who were not given the option to view the videos to say Good did not threaten any ICE agents than those who were not shown video (24% vs. 9%). This gap is 24% vs. 6% among those who had seen video of the incident before the survey
  • Among Independents, 60% who saw the videos before being asked say Good didn't threaten agents, compared to 46% of those not given the option of seeing the videos

• Republicans who were shown videos during the survey were also more likely than those who were not given the option to view the videos to say Good was not attempting to run over the ICE agent (23% vs. 14%). This gap is similar (23% vs. 12%) among those who had seen video of the incident prior to the survey
  • Among Independents, 61% who saw the videos before being asked say Good wasn't attempting to run over the ICE agent, compared to 49% of those not given the option of seeing the videos

• Republicans who we showed the videos to were more likely than those without the option of viewing the videos to say that the shooting was not justified (24% vs. 16%). This gap is 24% vs. 11% when filtering only to those who had seen video of the incident prior to the survey
  • Among Independents, 64% who saw the videos before being asked say the shooting was not justified, compared to 53% of those not given the option of seeing the videos

Image: Getty (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

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