Majority of Latinos disapprove of Trump’s policies, Pew Research poll finds
A majority of Latino voters disapprove of President Donald Trump, especially his policies on immigration and the economy, according to a report from the Pew Research Center.
The center polled over 5,000 Hispanic people in two surveys. Seventy percent of respondents said they disapproved of the way Trump is handling his job as president, deportations and the economy.
The results represent a slide in Trump’s standing with Hispanic voters from his first term in office, though some say the poll results are related to a misshapen view of Trump presented by the media, along with misleading political rhetoric.
According to the report, 68 percent of respondents say the situation for U.S. Hispanic people today is worse than it was a year ago. By comparison, the same question was asked in 2019, when 39 percent said the situation was worse than a year ago for Hispanic people. In 2021, the figure was 26 percent.
“When you live with both economic vulnerability and everyday discrimination, it’s easy to feel that you’re permanently kept on the margins, even as your community is essential to the local economy,” said Santiago Piñón, a professor who teaches race, religion and law at TCU.
Tarrant County viewpoints
Hispanic people are the fastest-growing and largest racial or ethnic minority in the United States at 68 million people, or 20 percent of the population, according to the Census. There are more than 690,000 Hispanic people in Tarrant County, representing about 31 percent of the population.
Trump won 48 percent of the Hispanic vote in the U.S. in 2024, up from 28 percent in 2016. But, as the year has progressed, Hispanic people have doubted Trump’s policies and questioned their own standing in the United States, according to the Pew report.
Alberto Govea, president of LULAC Council 4568 in Fort Worth, says many people cannot accept that Mexican Americans are Americans and that they bring value to the country. Govea was among the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against Tarrant County over the new Commissioners Court’s precinct map, arguing that the map illegally diminished the voting power of Black and Latino voters.
Trump’s immigration crackdown has led Govea and his wife to tell their children and grandchildren to always carry their IDs or other citizenship documentation. The Trump administration’s increase in deportations, revoking temporary legal status, and challenging birthright citizenship are some of the policies that have put Govea and others he knows on high alert.
“I think that our community feels like we’re being hunted,” Govea said. “Whether you’re legal or illegal, if you look brown, then you’re a target.”
The Pew report also revealed that 65 percent of Hispanic people disapprove of the administration’s approach to immigration, and 61 percent say Trump’s economic policies have made economic conditions worse. The poll indicated that 71 percent of those surveyed think the Trump administration is doing too much when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the country illegally. It added that one-in-three Latinos have struggled to pay for groceries, medical care and their rent or mortgage.
Diego Camacho is a Hispanic person who considers himself a conservative. His family has lived in Tarrant County for decades. He said the shift in Trump’s support is essentially a perception issue shaped by the media and political rhetoric, rather than lived policy outcomes.
While economic conditions and deportation have caused uncertainty, many Hispanic people come to the U.S. for a better life and still believe upward mobility is possible, Camacho said.
“Still, when you look past the polarization, there are areas where some of Trump’s priorities have overlapped with values many Hispanics hold, particularly around work and economic opportunity, support for small businesses and entrepreneurship, public safety and stable communities, and an emphasis on family, faith, and personal responsibility, even among people who may disagree with his tone or broader approach,” Camacho said.
What America becomes
Piñón, the TCU professor, says the targeting of Hispanic people in terms of their standing as citizens in the United States is history repeating itself.
In 1896, Ricardo Rodríguez, a Mexican immigrant residing in San Antonio, applied for naturalization in federal court to vote, which came as there was a call to disenfranchise all Texas Mexicans. The following year, the judge ruled in Rodríguez’s favor, thereby helping Texas Mexicans obtain the right to vote.
In 1946, the Mendez family and four other families filed a lawsuit alleging that the state of California had violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment due to segregated schools. A judge ruled in their favor, and later set legal precedent in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
In 1951, Pete Hernández was accused of murdering a man in Jackson County and tried by a jury of white people. His case that his 14th Amendment rights were violated went to the Supreme Court, which extended constitutional rights to Mexican Americans and other protected groups.
In July, a federal judge issued a restraining order to stop ICE and the Department of Homeland Security from conducting stops in Los Angeles. The judge found evidence that they were using race, speaking Spanish or English with an accent, presence in specific locations, and the type of work as factors for why people were stopped. In September, the Supreme Court held that the immigration raids could proceed. Critics of the ruling say it cleared the way for racial profiling.
Many Hispanic people rightly feel pessimistic because of the rhetoric, aggressive immigration policies and persistent economic and racial inequities, Piñón said. However, as history has shown, Hispanic people are resilient and will persevere despite political opposition, he said.
“A new generation of young Latinas and Latinos is better educated, more civically engaged, and more vocal than ever before, refusing to accept second-class status as normal,” Piñón said. “So while many rightly feel that this is a difficult and even dangerous moment, the long arc points toward a future in which Hispanic communities not only endure, but increasingly define what America itself becomes.”
