FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 30, 2025
Coyote Codornices Marin (they/them)
Independent California Institute
director@ic.institute
Poll: 72% of Californians want police to arrest certain ICE agents
Carlsbad, CA: 72% of Californians said California police to arrest federal immigration officials that “act maliciously or knowingly exceed their authority under federal law,” in a poll conducted this June. The poll was conducted by YouGov for the Independent California Institute, a non-profit think-tank.
The poll question was carefully phrased to match case law on the limits of federal supremacy immunity from state prosecution. For example, Clifton v. Cox, a 9th circuit court of appeals case about a federal drug enforcement office that shot an unarmed man in Garberville, CA, reads: “Essential to this determination… is whether the official employs means which he cannot honestly consider reasonable in discharging his duties or otherwise acts out of malice or with some criminal intent.”
In recent weeks, there have been numerous cases of federal officials apparently pushing well past the bounds of their authorities. For example, federal immigration officials recently blasted the front door of a home in Huntington Park, CA where they knew only U.S. citizens were resident, in apparent retaliation for one of the residents colliding with a Border Patrol vehicle in a traffic accident.
Californians also want to strengthen the California Values Act, which limits state and local officials’ collaboration with immigration. 72% want to make it easier to sue California officials who “help federal immigration authorities violate the due process rights of immigrants, in violation of state law,” holding them “civilly accountable.” 57% of Californians want to completely forbid California officials from collaborating with immigration enforcement and to penalize government employees who violate this policy.
On a more positive note, 74% of Californians endorse creating a path to state citizenship for long-term California residents who don’t hold U.S. citizenship.
The poll was conducted between June 11 and 23, and interviewed 500 California adults. It has a margin of error of ±5.7%.
For more topline results, analysis, and the full poll methodology, see https://ic.institute/poll. You can also view the full text of the poll at https://ic.institute/poll-questions.
