(The Center Square) – American voters are focused on prices, tariffs and illegal immigration as President Donald Trump approaches the 100-day mark of his second term in the White House, which is Tuesday. 

The Center Square Voter’s Voice Poll found that immigration issues, which helped put Trump win the White House, have fallen in importance for voters. Trump has made progress on issues at the border since taking office, which voters have recognized. The poll found that 47% of those surveyed said federal policy on immigration and border security has “gotten better,” compared to 32% who say it has “gotten worse.”

“Immigration has become a second-tier issue in terms of importance; things like inflation [and] tariffs and trade have knocked it out of its spot,” said David Byler, head of research at Noble Predictive Insights.

Concerns about inflation and high prices remain a top issue for voters, with 41% saying it was among their top three issues. And it remains a weak point for Trump, who promised to tame inflation and bring down prices on the campaign trail. The newest issue that voters are worried about is tariffs and international trade, with 33% of voters reporting it was among their top three issues. Illegal immigration was at 26%, followed by the economy and jobs at 25%. That was tied with concerns about government corruption. Healthcare stood at 21% and affordable housing at 15%. 

After that, it was high taxes (14%), national debt (13%), national security (13%), federal rollback of DEI policies (12%), abortion rights (10%), climate change (9%), education (9%), stock market instability (9%), other (4%), and at the bottom was race relations at 3%.

The poll question showed voters are more focused on pocketbook issues than social ones, with concerns about prices and tariffs at the top. That presents Trump with challenges as he seeks to re-order global trade. Trump announced a slate of tariffs on April 2, which he called “Liberation Day” for American trade. Seven days later, on April 9, he paused nearly all of those higher rates that Trump calls reciprocal. Trump said the pause would last 90 days as his trade team talks with more than 75 other nations. However, Trump maintained a 10% baseline tariff and a 145% import duty on goods from China. 

Economists, businesses, and a growing number of publicly traded companies have warned that tariffs could push up prices on a large swath of consumer products. Trump has said he wants to use tariffs to bring back manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past, shift the tax burden away from U.S. families and pay down national debt.

Many companies and industry groups have raised price concerns even for products made in the U.S. because tariffs on imported raw materials could boost prices.

A tariff is a tax on imported goods. The importer pays the tax and can either absorb the loss or pass the cost on to consumers through higher prices.

The poll was conducted by Noble Predictive Insights from April 15-18, 2025, and surveyed registered voters nationally via an opt-in online panel and text-to-web cell phone messages. The sample included 2,527 respondents, comprised of 1,089 Republicans, 1,187 Democrats, and 251 True Independents, which Noble Predictive defines as independents who chose neither when asked if they lean toward one of the major parties.

The poll weighted each party – Republicans, Democrats, and True Independents – independently. In other words, the Republican subsample is weighted so it matches the national Republican population, and the same is true for Democrats and True Independents. Additional weighting variables include age, region, gender, education, and race/ethnicity.

The margin of error was +/- 2.0%.

(The Center Square) – Texas Department of Public Safety officers continue to find missing children and arrest those on its criminal illegal immigrant most wanted list.

With April being “Child Abuse Prevention Month,” DPS troopers have rescued more than 600 children through its Interdiction for the Protection of Children (IPC) Program, DPS said. IPC officers are trained “to identify victims of exploitation, missing children, crimes against children and high-risk threats against children,” DPS said.

Through Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star, DPS troopers rescued more than 900 children illegally brought into the U.S. in Texas alone under the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.

So far this year, DPS and other agencies have arrested 21 Texas 10 Most Wanted fugitives, sex offenders and others, including six sex offenders and seven criminal illegal immigrants – with $25,000 in rewards being paid for tips that yielded arrests, DPS said.

One recent arrest was of a fugitive on Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrants List, 46-year-old Mexican national Carlos Ortiz. He was arrested after DPS received a tip through Crime Stoppers.

Ortiz was wanted by authorities in Tarrant County since October 2024 on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a young child. He was arrested at an apartment complex in Haltom City by multiple authorities, including special agents from DPS’ Criminal Investigations Division, Haltom City Police and U.S. Marshals North Texas Fugitive Task Force.

Since 2008, Ortiz had been arrested in Tarrant County for assault causing bodily injury to a family member and driving while intoxicated, according to DPS records.

Another fugitive arrested on Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrants List was 25-year-old Honduran national Anderson Ronaldo Reyes Giron. He was arrested in north central Austin and wanted by authorities in Travis County since February for deadly conduct (discharging a firearm) and in Williamson County since March on property theft charges.

He was first arrested under the Trump administration in January 2017 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection “for alien removal.” By August 2024, he was arrested by the Austin Police Department officers for deadly conduct (discharging a firearm) and subsequently bonded out of jail, according to DPS records.

Through the governor’s Public Safety Office, taxpayer money is allocated to Texas Crime Stoppers to offer cash rewards to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest of one of Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, Sex Offenders or Criminal Illegal Immigrants. To be eligible for cash rewards, tipsters must provide information to authorities by calling the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477), submitting a tip through DPS website or Facebook page.

“All tips are anonymous – regardless of how they are submitted – and tipsters will be provided a tip number instead of using a name,” DPS says.

As offenders are arrested and come off of the lists, others are added.

Two recent additions include U.S. citizens, Rondarrius Evans, 21, of New Boston, to the Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives List and Rodolfo Martinez Jr., 42, to the Texas 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders List.

Evans is wanted by authorities in Bowie County since last August on two capital murder charges and drug charges. Martinez Jr. is wanted in Harris County since last November for indecency with a child by sexual contact.

Texas Crime Stoppers is offering cash rewards for tips that lead to their arrests.

(The Center Square) – A plurality of Americans say the Department of Government Efficiency is cutting too much, according to a new poll. 

Backing for cutting waste, fraud and abuse generally earns praise from Americans, but DOGE’s push for mass layoffs and shuttering entire agencies soured many voters.

The Center Square Voter’s Voice poll released this week asked registered voters about DOGE and found that 47% of those surveyed said “DOGE is cutting too much.” 

Another 28% said “DOGE is getting it right” while 12% said “DOGE is not cutting enough.” The remaining 14% are unsure. 

Support for DOGE varies widely by political party. According to The Center Square’s survey, only 19% of Republicans say DOGE is cutting too much, while 48% said DOGE is getting it right. Another 18% said DOGE is not cutting enough. 

Democrats reported the opposite sentiment, with 75% saying DOGE is cutting too much and only 10% saying DOGE is getting it right while 5% said DOGE should cut more. 

Notably, 49% of “true independents” say DOGE is cutting too much, compared to only 15% who say DOGE is getting it right and 13% who say DOGE is not cutting enough. In this poll, true independents are independents who say they do not lean toward one party or the other. 

DOGE’s backers said cutting hard and fast was the only way to make a difference before the bureaucracy could respond, pointing to rampant federal fraud and abuse as well as the soaring national debt, which is approaching $37 trillion. 

Democrats blasted DOGE, saying the many of the services being were important and that DOGE leader Elon Musk and his DOGE workers had too much access to Americans’ private information. 

A separate poll question asked registered voters their feelings about Musk. The poll found 39% approve of Musk’s role with DOGE compared to 55% who disapprove. POlitical party makes a significant difference in this question as well, with 71% of Republicans approving of Musk, compared to only 10% of Democrats.

“What you see is Elon Musk has a worse favorability than Donald Trump,” David Byler, chief of research at Noble Predictive Insights, which carried out the poll, told The Center Square. 

“This is a consistent finding over polls, so having him as the figurehead is probably not helping,” Byler added.

Musk is reportedly pulling away from his heavy involvement with DOGE to focus on his private companies, including Tesla. 

The Center Square’s Voter’s Voice poll, conducted with Noble Predictive Insights from April 15-18, queried 2,527 registered voters. Of those respondents, 1,089 were Republicans, 1,187 were Democrats, and 251 were “True Independents,” which are independents who do not lean to one party or the other. The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll is one of only six national tracking polls in the United States. It was scheduled to coincide with Trump’s 100th day in office, which is Tuesday, April 29.

The survey has a +/- 2.0% margin of error.