Latino Support Jumps For Trump’s Border Wall, Deportations

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.


Former President Donald Trump has vowed to take extreme actions to secure the U.S.-Mexico border if he wins November’s presidential election.

And that promise is supported by a key voting bloc — Latinos.

The most recent Axios-Ipsos Latino Poll shows that the percentage of Latinos who support erecting a border wall and deporting all undocumented immigrants has increased by at least 10 points since 2021.

According to the research, even among those who might have connections to immigration, Trump’s calls for increased border security and possibly his anti-immigrant rhetoric are having an impact.

The results also illuminate Republicans’ recent gains among Latinos and reflect the frustration that has elevated illegal immigration to the top issue for many Americans during election season.

If Trump wins back the presidency, he has vowed to increase border security and organize mass deportations, which he claims could include a million people.

President Joe Biden now claims he would be prepared to “close the border” in the event of spikes in the number of border crossers, following a political setback over border security.

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Axios reported on the findings:

42% of Latino adults surveyed said they support building a wall or fence along the entire U.S.–Mexico border. That’s a 12-point jump from December 2021.

38% support sending all undocumented immigrants in the U.S. back to their country of origin — up from 28% in 2021.

In addition, 64% of Latinos said they support giving the president the authority to shut U.S. borders if there are too many immigrants trying to enter the country. It was the first time the survey asked this question.

Support for building a wall was strongest among Cuban Americans (58%), who generally are more conservative than many other Latinos and have benefited from decades of Cold War-era “special treatment” on immigration.

Support for the border wall is lowest among Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans (37%). Only 43% of Central Americans support the wall.

According to the survey, after inflation and crime, Latinos’ top concerns in this election year are immigration and crime.

Even though the percentage of Latinos who believe that anyone in the country illegally should be deported is on the rise, a sizable majority (65%) still prefer to offer them a path to citizenship.

A massive 59% are in favor of granting asylum to refugees who are escaping crime and violence in Latin America in the United States.

Ipsos pollster and senior vice president Chris Jackson told Axios that the poll “illustrates that some immigration hardline positions (are) incrementally more popular” among Latinos.

The border crisis is one of the top issues on voters’ minds this election, and it is getting worse under the watch of Biden.

The number of illegal aliens entering the nation in February increased as the Department of Homeland Security said that it had more than 256,000 encounters with unauthorized migrants that month, The Washington Times reported.

“Nearly 190,000 of the encounters came at the southern border, and about 141,000 of those were Border Patrol arrests. Among them were 11 more arrests of migrants whose identities were found on the government’s terrorism watchlist,” the report said.

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“The rest of the southern border encounters were unauthorized migrants showing up at crossings and demanding to be let in. More than 42,000 of those sought entry under a legally iffy ‘parole’ program created by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to try to take pressure off Border Patrol agents,” it said.

“Under that program, known as the CBPOne App, migrants can schedule their arrivals at the border and be allowed in. The government also runs another parole program that allows up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to preschedule arrivals at airports inside the  U.S.,” it said.

But Customs and Border Protection said that the high number of encounters is because the program is working as intended and “noncitizens will follow an orderly process when one is available.”

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