American Latino voters prefer President Donald Trump’s populist migration policies over President Joe Biden’s cheap-labor policies, according to an Ipsos poll released on April 9.
Twenty-nine percent of 1,000 Latinos told Ipsos that Trump is “good on immigration,” while just 22 percent said Biden is “good on immigration.”
The poll also reported that 42 percent of Latinos support a border wall, and 38 percent support the forced return of migrants to their home countries — despite pro-migrant sympathy in their own families and neighborhoods.
These poll numbers are much higher than in December 2021, when just 30 percent of Latinos supported a wall and 28 percent supported deportations.
Sixty-four percent support “giving the President the authority to shut U.S. borders if there are too many migrants trying to enter the country.”
“Around one in four say that improving border security (24%) or reforming the immigration system (26%) should be the most important priority for the government,” the poll says.
These numbers likely understate American Latino support for Trump’s policies. The poll surveyed adults, not just citizens or likely voters. Only 835 of the 1,080 respondents in the poll were likely to vote.
The poll matches many other polls and also shows that Latinos are deeply concerned about local crime and pocketbook issues — inflation and jobs — just like many other Americans.
Those mainstream concerns also help Trump’s scores, according to the poll: “When asked who is better for the U.S. economy, Latinos prefer Trump (42%) over Biden (20%). On crime and public safety, Trump (31%) also outperforms Biden (20%).”
But the poll also shows that most Latinos lean towards the Democrats’ big-government policies, especially those who are in lower income brackets. Yet they also favor Trump’s populist policies over the business-first policies pushed by the GOP’s fast-shrinking establishment wing.
The migration and money responses suggest that the strong support for Trump’s low-migration policies is likely a rational response to the economic damage done by Biden’s high-migration policies.
Biden’s policies have invited at least 7 million southern migrants — plus roughly 4 million legal immigrant and visa workers — to compete against Americans for jobs, wages, homes, and seats in decent K-12 schools. That flood imposes chaos and poverty on many struggling communities, regardless of race or ethnicity.
So far, GOP candidates have largely ignored the pocketbook damage caused by Biden’s migration. Instead, they are using migration to spur turnout among GOP base voters by denouncing the crime, chaos, and drug smuggling enabled by Biden’s policy.
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However, some Republicans have begun to woo swing voters — including American Latinos — by denouncing the economic costs and burdens of Biden’s migration policy, such as spreading poverty and rising burdens on local governments.
Democrats certainly recognize the economic impact of their migration policies, in part, because their supporters on Wall Street want to drive down wages and raise housing prices.
While denouncing Trump’s centrist policies as racist, they also offer taxpayer funds to offset the pocketbook damage of their migration policies. For example, on April 9, Biden talked about housing costs in an interview with the Spanish-language Univision TV station:
Univision: In Nevada, during your recent trip to Nevada and Phoenix, we spoke with Victor and Maria Cureño. They bought their first home at 51, thanks to a loan from the federal government that allowed them to put the down payment for their first house. So how would the new Biden-Harris administration make home ownership more attainable for families across the country, across the board?
Biden: Well, first of all, if you’re buying your first home and or you’re moving up from a small home to a larger home, we provide for the ability for you to essentially get a $10,000 dollar payment to buy the first home and or to move to another home because of interest rates and the like. What that does is, again, that grows the economy, it allows people [sic]. And we’ve provided for millions of new homes, rental assistance, or provided… we’ve sent people checks for a lot of money to subsidize their rent, because it’s, again, overwhelming the interest of the country [sic] that we do that. So, we have a major housing program through the Department of Health, of Housing and Urban Development. We have a major program that through the legislation that no Republican voted for, I might add, that provides for rent subsidies. Think of all the people who were able to stay in their homes during the pandemic and after the pandemic because we subsidized their rent. Why isn’t… why does that not make sense? And encourages builders to build these homes, build these apartments? And, so, it’s — I have the number here, but anyway… it’s a significant impact.
Democrats are also simultaneously using claims of racism and GOP elitism to frighten Latino voters away from both populist Trump and the business-first wing of the GOP:
A plurality of Latinos hold an unfavorable view of Biden (41% favorable, 47% unfavorable), while Trump is seen even less favorably (32% favorable, 56% unfavorable)
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Latinos are far more likely to say that the Democratic Party represents people like them (36%), cares about Latino and Hispanic people (34%), and shares their values (32%) compared to the Republican Party (16%, 12%, and 17%, respectively).
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Half of respondents (52%) say they agree that they worry that if the government starts mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, they will target all Latinos, including native and legal residents, not only the undocumented. These levels are highest among respondents who speak only Spanish (59%) as well as first generation respondents (57%).
Other recent polls of Latinos in California show a similar mix of Latino concerns about migration and money.
For example, the Public Policy Institute of California conducted a poll of 1,075 likely voters in California. It asked voters to decide if “[1] Immigrants today are a benefit to California because of their hard work and job skills OR [2] Immigrants today are a burden to California because they use public services.” Forty-four percent of likely voters and 41 percent of Latinos picked “burden.” In competitive districts, 48 percent said migration is a burden, according to the poll.
Axios reported on their poll, saying:
The findings suggest former President Trump‘s calls for more border security — and perhaps his anti-immigrant rhetoric — are registering even among people who may have ties to immigration …. Between the lines: A recent study published in the European Political Science Review suggests Latino support for Trump is not growing in spite of his anti-immigrant rhetoric — but because of it.
Biden’s policy of Extraction Migration has pulled roughly 10 million legal and illegal migrants into the United States since 2021. That flood has helped investors by inflating real estate prices and reducing Americans’ wages.
The flood is urged and welcomed by business groups because it cuts Americans’ blue-collar wages and white-collar salaries. It also reduces marketplace pressure to invest in productivity-boosting technology, heartland states, and overseas markets. and it reduces economic pressure on the federal government to deal with the drug and “Deaths of Despair” crises.
Biden’s easy-migration policies are deliberately adding the foreigners’ problems to the lengthening list of Americans’ problems — homelessness, low wages, a shrinking middle class, slowing innovation, declining blue-collar life expectancy, spreading poverty, the rising death toll from drugs, and the increasing alienation among young people.