How Trump's residue of immigration plays in bad perceptions: NPR

If the First migrant prisoners The Trump government came as a hardened criminal on the US marine base in Guantánamo Bay in military aircraft.

“It keeps those who are worst worst” told Fox News At the beginning of this month.

That was the public message. But in response to a lawsuit the administration granted later that almost 30% of the Venezuelan migrants sent to Guantánamo were regarded as “illegal foreigners with a low threat” and had no serious criminal records.

The White House shows its approach to illegal immigration as an unrestricted success. However, critics fear that his top -class distant flights and arrests from migrants could prioritize a prioritization of the optics and long -term misconvenents over immigrants and crime.

A recently carried out NPR/IPSOS survey showed that a considerable number of Americans believe the wrong and misleading claims about immigration – especially those who receive their news from FOX and conservative outlets.

“I'm worried about this model, in which Trump behaves almost like a reality show producer,” said Brendan Nyhan, professor at Dartmouth College, where he studies political communication and false perceptions.

When the immigration authorities started in Chicago in Chicago last month in Chicago brought an unusual guest: Phil McGraw, The TV personality, better known as Dr. Phil.

In the few weeks of the Trump administration, the US immigration and customs officials carried out similar measures across the country to aim what they call “criminal extraterrestrials”. And the TV cameras were never far back.

A FOX News Camera Crew that is embedded with ice cream Aurora, Colorado. However, this operation resulted in only about 30 arrests, far less than the hundred members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which the ice leaders provided, they aimed.

ICE carried out under previous administrations such as these enforcement processes. And there were also media steps, Go back.

However, Nyhan says that this integration between law enforcement authorities and the media feels different.

“They are worried about the tail that wags the dog,” said Nyhan. “To what extent the Trump administration almost does what it does for the benefit of FOX and other Allied media sources is quite striking.”

These videos and pictures of arrests and deportations make it possible for the Trump government to look at immigration hard, says Nyhan, even if the enforcement figures have decreased well after the declared goals of the White House.

The arrests of immigrants without legal status rose in the first weeks of the Trump administration. In the first week of February, ICE was arrested on average fewer than 600 people a day – far from at least 1200 to 1500 arrests per day, of which the administrative officials announced, they want.

“It seems as if he was acting on his goals,” said Nyhan, “although the deportation figures are tiny breaks of what Trump promised during the campaign.”

This new emphasis is also worrying, say experts, because they reinforce misjudgments about immigration and crime.

The youngest NPR/IPSOS survey found that people who receive their news from Fox and conservative media believe more false and misleading claims: that immigrants commit more crimes on average than local people; And that migrants smuggle most of the fentanyl, which comes across the southern border.

These statements are both wrong. But Our survey shows The people who receive their news from Fox and conservative media believed them twice as often as those who don't.

It is also more likely that you believe another claim about migrants that President Trump often makes without evidence: “They come from prisons and prisons, mental institutions and scratchy asylum”, “ Trump said at A rally in Chesapeake, Virginia Last year “millions and millions of people who come from prisons”. Trump has often repeated versions of this claim on the campaign path and now again in the White House.

The NPR/IPSOS survey showed that less than a quarter of the Americans believe that this is true. But it is more than half among people who receive their news from Fox and Conservative Media.

“What you hear is a drum beat of the language of this administration,” said Jane Hall, professor at the American University and former discussion participant in Fox News.

“They repeat over and over again, they are criminals, this is a stroll through crime,” said Hall. “This type of story and symbolism is very powerful for people. Fear is very powerful.”

In a way, these are versions of the same claims that Trump has made since his first announcement that he ran for the president in 2015.

“It's all a reinforcement effect,” said Dannagal Young, professor of communication and political science at the University of Delaware, who checked the survey results at the request of NPR.

Young warns too much in a single survey before reading because it is impossible to say what is the top priority – the media or malice chamber. Nevertheless, there is an effect.

“It is not about learning this wrong information so much as this false information sewn into your identity and becoming more and more of part of the one you are and how you see the world,” said Young.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comments. However, administrative officials argue that images are detained and deported by immigrants, a strong deterrent message.

“We are a nation that everyone in the world understands on this planet: they don't come here illegally,” said Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff of the White House, at a press conference last week. “You won't come in. You will go to prison. You will go home. You will not achieve it.”

And the secretary of home protection security, Kirsti Noem An interview with CBS

“It's not a spectacle,” said Noem. “This is the legal proceedings of our nation.

Nevertheless, media experts say that there is more going on here than transparency.

“Trump has a very strong, intuitive sense and he understands how people think. And I think he is often right, said Jung. She believes that the Trump government uses the techniques of reality TV The apprentice for 14 seasons.

“By occupying himself as a decider and boss for so many years, he did it that way. He did it that way,” said Young. “He knows what he does in his construction of reality.”

Trump has brought the same deliberate construction of reality into immigration, says Young. And it works for a large proportion of the country.

The NPR/IPSOS survey was carried out online from February 7th to 10th, 2025 with a sample of 1,013 adults. The survey has an error rate of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points for all respondents.