A majority of Hispanic voters said they “support Donald Trump’s immigration policies,” undercutting the narrative that enforcing immigration law will drive away Latinos, one exit poll found.
Article by Katie Mchugh
The poll, conducted from Nov. 9 to Nov. 10 by Zogby Analytics for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), found 58.5 percent of Hispanic voters favored President-Elect Donald Trump’s immigration policies, compared to 32.9 percent for failed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Of all voters, 57.4 percent said they support Trump’s immigration policies, with 38.4 percent backing Clinton’s.
Clinton promised to all but dissolve U.S. borders in her first 100 days in office, and told a South American bank in a private, paid speech she “dreamed” of a “hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders.”
Pollsters also found “77.4 percent of Hispanic voters rated immigration as important or somewhat important in their voting decisions,” compared to 84.6 percent of all voters, and 87.8 percent of white voters.
Twice as many Hispanic voters think immigration enforcement is too lax than those who think it’s too strict (36.3 percent versus 18.3 percent).
“The conventional wisdom that advocating enforcement of immigration laws is a deal-killer for Hispanic voters is just plain wrong,” Dan Stein, president of FAIR, said in a statement. “It is a myth perpetuated by groups and individuals with a political stake in maintaining mass immigration and by a bunch of high-price political consultants who continually misread public sentiment.” Stein added:
As Republicans lay out their immigration agenda for the next two years in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, they would be well-advised to ignore the self-anointed spokespeople and the political consulting class. Enforcing immigration laws, securing our borders, protecting American workers and taxpayers, and setting reasonable limits on immigration enjoy broad public support, including large numbers of Hispanic Americans who stand to benefit economically from the policies President-elect Trump ran on.
Another poll, released on Election Day, found 54 percent of voters—and 52 percent of Hispanic voters—want annual immigration flows into the U.S. slashed in half or reduced to zero.
Another poll released in July found that voters in Midwestern states, which carried Trump into the White House, were on the whole deeply concerned about immigration and its effects on the job market and their wages.
