GEOFF BENNETT: It is shaping up to be a consequential week in the nation's capital, as cracks emerge inside the Republican Party over the Trump administration's handling of its immigration crackdown in Minnesota and beyond.

For analysis, we're joined tonight by our Politics Monday team.

That's Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

It's good to see you both.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Hello.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Amy, for all of the talk about this defiant Trump White House, the White House is not immune to sustained public pressure.

What does the latest polling show about how the American public broadly views its immigration approach?

AMY WALTER: Yes, it's really interesting, Geoff.

At the beginning of President Trump's term, approval rating of handling immigration was higher than his overall handling of the job that he was doing.

Now, as both of those have come down over the course of his presidency, still, for much of the year, immigration has been higher.

But -- and it's not just because of what we have seen in Minnesota.

We started to see this dip really going back earlier than this, where opinions about how Trump's handling immigration are now basically matching his overall approval rating.

What happened?

I think a lot of it is that the conversation about immigration is no longer about immigration.

It's no longer about the border.

It's not even about this conversation about what we and how we should be handling the things that we normally talk about, like path to citizenship or DACA.

Instead, what we're talking about are very specifically the way that agents whose job it is to apprehend these folks, the ICE agents, are treating communities and, in the case of Minnesota, these two individuals who were shot by these agents.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Tam, you heard Senator Smith describe this as a coalition of the horrified, Democrats and Republicans who take issue with the way that the Trump administration is executing its immigration priorities here.

I mean, could this be one of the moments where voters who backed Trump on immigration begin to recoil from the methods, even if they still support the end goal?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: I think that we are starting to see that.

NPR had a focus group that we sat in on conducted by Engagious.

And there -- they were talking specifically to people who voted for President Biden and then voted for President Trump in 2024.

And about a third of them raised their hands and said they thought that ICE was going too far.

These were Trump voters who said that ICE was going too far.

And I think that the surest sign that the politics on this are not the best is President Trump himself.

The fact that he is trying to distance himself from what happened in Minnesota, the fact that he and his chief spokesperson are distancing him from the statements of Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff, the fact that they are putting some separation there is an indication of a real shift and an indication that President Trump realizes this may not be a political winner.

And I have previously said here that the Trump administration has one speed, and it is to fight.

Well, they just suddenly discovered a different gear.

They're in reverse.

They are looking for an exit strategy from the really heightened rhetoric that -- and just really heightened situation on the ground in Minnesota.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Amy, one of the Republican candidates for governor dropped out of the race this morning, Chris Madel.

He wrote AN op-ed saying that ICE has gone too far.

He accused national Republicans of pursuing retribution against the state's leaders.

If even GOP candidates are worried about how the administration's enforcement strategy is landing, what does that say to you?

AMY WALTER: Yes.

I mean, the fact that you also had a lot of Republicans across the country take to social media over the weekend to say, again, the opposite of what the secretary of homeland security was saying, the opposite of what some of the folks of the administration were saying, they came out really and said, don't like what we're seeing here, this is a tragedy and that they're saying we need to have some more oversight here.

That, for Republicans, is a big push, to say we're going to have oversight over an executive branch, executive authority, executive branch.

But how far this goes -- right, we always wonder how far will this go?

And that's why Lisa on here a few minutes ago made a really good -- helped us really understand what comes next, but trying to figure out what that line is between what Republicans are willing to do in terms of a funding bill, what kinds of oversight they're willing to provide and whether or not Democrats will believe that that is good enough.

When I was talking to a Democratic strategist earlier today, the frustration among Democrats is as telling as some of these rifts among Republicans.

So making a deal isn't just about getting Republicans on board.

It's getting Democrats to trust and to want to agree with a compromise on the Republican side.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Tam, what's the risk for Democrats here if there is one for confronting these tactics head on, given past political losses on crime and immigration?

AMY WALTER: Right.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

So the issue that Democrats have had is that Republicans have been able to own immigration.

They have won many a midterm with a Democratic president by campaigning on immigration, talking about the border.

But as Amy mentioned before, this is different.

This is Americans in American cities being killed by immigration agents.

So if Democrats are able to keep it focused on that and not talk about open borders or eliminate ICE, which had been something that they had campaigned on before and then that was thrown in their faces, there is a careful balance here.

But the fact that these videos exist, the fact that people, like, everyone is seeing these videos really makes this a visceral issue for a lot of voters.

GEOFF BENNETT: How do you see it, Amy?

AMY WALTER: Yes, I absolutely agree with that.

And that's why, again, you look at this New York Times poll that came out last week, this -- again, before what happened this weekend -- I'm sorry - - it came out last week.

Do you support Trump's deportation of immigrants living here illegally?

Fifty percent of Americans say, yes, they do.

But then you ask the question, do you think - - do you approve of how ICE is handling its job?

Only 36 percent approve of it.

So the issue isn't that people are saying, we should not be deporting people who are here illegally.

What they are disagreeing with is the way that ICE is handling it.

And that, again, if we had a Congress that was working together, that is the sweet spot there.

Fix the problem with the enforcement.

That's where the crux of the matter sits.

GEOFF BENNETT: Amy Walter and Tamara Keith, our thanks to you, as always.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.