Harvard/Harris Poll: Democratic Support for Deporting Criminal Migrants Rose 8 Points in One Month, and Maine Democrats Just Nominated a Candidate Who Called Himself a Communist

Two polls, one primary, and a party pulling in opposite directions

Since our prior coverage of Trump's approval numbers and the Iran negotiations, a separate story has been developing inside the Democratic Party itself. It involves voters moving one way and activists steering the other.

The Harvard University/Harris Poll, conducted May 29-30 among 1,725 registered voters with a margin of error of ±2.4 points, found that 71% of Democrats now support deporting migrants who have committed crimes in the United States. In April, that number was 63%. That is an 8-point jump in a single month, according to the New York Post's reporting on the survey.

Republican support for deporting criminal migrants held near-steady, moving from 89% to 90%. Independent support rose from 73% to 79%. The overall figure across all voters hit 80%, up from 75% in April.

On the broader question of deporting all people present in the country illegally, support is lower but also rising. Among Democrats specifically, 37% now favor it, up from 33% in April. That puts Democratic support equal to independent support on the question — independents moved from 49% to 53% over the same period.

One data point cuts against the narrative of a clean rightward march: Republican support for deporting ALL illegal immigrants actually fell, from 80% in April to 77% in May. The poll doesn't explain why. It could reflect satisfaction with enforcement already underway, concern about economic disruption, or simple polling noise inside the margin of error.

What enforcement has actually looked like

The Department of Homeland Security reported last month that more than 3 million people have left the U.S. or been deported since Trump took office in January 2025. Of those, 2.2 million used the DHS self-deportation app, which offers a cash stipend and a free flight home in exchange for voluntary surrender. Another 900,000 have been formally deported, and DHS says it has made 900,000 arrests inside the country.

These are agency figures, not independently audited numbers. They provide context for why public opinion may be shifting. Voters are watching a policy execute and forming updated views.

Meanwhile, the progressive wing just won a Senate primary in Maine

The concern many Democrats have about their own base moving toward Trump on immigration is not the only internal tension the party faces. On the other end of the spectrum, the progressive wing won a string of primaries this week. The headline result is in Maine.

Graham Platner won the Democratic Senate nomination and, according to the Reason commentary written by J.D. Tuccille, currently polls ahead of incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins. Bernie Sanders, who endorsed Platner, declared on June 3 that "progressives are on the march." After Tuesday's results, Politico reporters William Steakin, Lisa Kashinsky, and Andrew Howard reported that Sanders' endorsed candidates "cleaned house" in coast-to-coast primaries.

Platner sported a Nazi Totenkopf skull tattoo, which he covered only after public attention. He had for years referred to it as "my Totenkopf" — a detail that led his then-political director to quit the campaign and publicly call out the excuse that he didn't know what it meant. Platner has called himself a "communist." Former girlfriends allege physical abuse, with one account describing grabbing "hard enough to leave marks." Maine Governor Janet Mills dropped her own Senate bid in April after failing to gain traction against him.

The strongest case for Platner's voters

Platner's supporters are not voting for the tattoo. They are voting against Susan Collins, against what they view as corporate Democratic centrism, and for a candidate who speaks in blunt economic terms about working-class Americans being left behind. The progressive case is that ideological purity on economics matters more than personal baggage, and that mainstream Democrats like Mills failed to mobilize the base. Those are real grievances, and voters expressing them are motivated by substantive concerns.

That said: the specific candidate those votes produced has a documented history of personal conduct and public statements that would end most political careers before they started. The ideological energy behind the movement is not the same thing as a judgment that Platner is fit for the Senate.

The actual tension

These two stories are not identical, but they rhyme. Democratic rank-and-file voters are telling pollsters they want criminal migrants removed from the country. Democratic primary voters in Maine are nominating a self-described communist with documented personal controversies. The party's leadership is caught between those two constituencies, and nothing in this week's data suggests a resolution is close.

The Senate race in Maine now sets up Collins — a Republican who has frequently broken with her party — against a candidate whose nomination Sanders is treating as a movement milestone. Whether Platner's primary polling advantage over Collins holds into a general election, with the full weight of his personal record before a broader electorate, is the specific unresolved question that will define whether the progressive march Sanders is celebrating translates into actual legislative power.