Magnolia Tribune, December 2024
One of the capstone issues that the majority of American voters embraced in electing former President Donald Trump to a second term in the White House was his hardline stance on immigration and his pledge of mass deportations of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. Actually, at various junctures in the 2024 campaign, Trump and his surrogates offered estimates of the undocumented immigrant population of the U.S. as high as 20 million. Did the threat of mass deportation of Hispanic migrant workers who did not enter the country following legal avenues bring political consequences for the Trump campaign?
In a word, no. Latino voters in the so-called Democratic “blue wall” states moved to the Trump camp–in part supporting his pledge to secure the Southern border and enact stricter immigration laws. Pollsters found that many Latino voters resented the fact that they obeyed immigration laws to enter the U.S. legally while the undocumented ignored them. Pollsters also found Latino voters who perceived a stronger, better economy under Trump after struggling through inflation and other economic challenges under President Joe Biden–voting economic concerns over partisan loyalties. While Kamala Harris took 53% of the Latino majority nationwide, Trump improved his support among that demographic by 13% to take 45%–earning the record support for a Republican by Latinos set by former President George W. Bush.
