While statistics show that violent and property crime rates have plunged since the 1990s, Mr Trump has conjured a threat of American carnage, and an enemy responsible: undocumented migrants – and, increasingly, those who stand with them. Fear is an instrument. The administration will struggle to meet its target of removing 1 million undocumented migrants a year unless people are frightened into “self‑deporting”, and sympathisers are frightened out of offering support. Most Americans – and the majority of independent voters – think Mr Trump’s deportation drive is excessive. But Republican-aligned voters disagree, and a third think he has not gone far enough.