Latinos increasingly pessimistic, critical of Trump and his immigration policies, Pew survey shows

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A new Pew Research Center survey reveals 68% of U.S. Latinos feel their situation has worsened in the last year.
On Donald Trump, 70% disapprove of the president's performance, including 55% that expressed strong disapproval.
Democratic and Democratic-leaning Latinos are more pessimistic and their outlook seems to be more representative of the group overall.

SALT LAKE CITY — A new survey of Latinos in the United States shows they have become increasingly pessimistic since the 2024 presidential vote, with 68% saying their situation has worsened in the last year.

Nearly a third of respondents to the Pew Research Center survey say they've considered leaving the United States, 46% of them citing the current political climate in the country. Most — 70% — disapprove of the job President Donald Trump is doing, including 55% who "strongly disapprove" of his efforts.

"For the first time in nearly two decades of Pew Research Center's surveys of Hispanics, most say they think the situation of U.S. Hispanics has worsened in the last year," reads the multifaceted Pew survey, released last week. The share of Latinos reporting a worsening of their situation, 68% in the new survey, "never reached a majority" in prior phone surveys.

The surveys were conducted in late September and October.

Looked at through a partisan lens, Democratic and Democratic-leaning respondents are more pessimistic, and their outlook seems to be more representative of the group overall. Among Democrats and those leaning Democratic, 83% say the situation of Hispanics in the United States has gotten worse compared to 43% among Republicans and those leaning Republican.

"More Latinos disapprove than approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, and most say his administration's policies have been harmful to Hispanics. Additionally, about 3 in 4 Latinos are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country today," reads the Pew report.

On Trump, 70% of respondents disapprove of the president's job, and 27% approve. Trump's approval rating measured 36% among Hispanics last February.

"About 8 in 10 Hispanics today say the Trump administration's policies have been harmful to Hispanics — higher than the 69% who said the same in 2019, late in Trump's first term. The share who are critical of the administration's impact has increased among Latino Republicans and Democrats alike," reads the report.

Parsed by political leaning, 67% of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents back Trump while 92% of Democratic and Democratic respondents disapprove of him.

On immigration, Latinos in the country largely oppose the efforts of Trump, who has prioritized efforts to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally.

"Roughly two-thirds say they disapprove of the administration's approach to immigration, and about 7 in 10 say the administration is doing too much when it comes to deporting immigrants who are living in the United States illegally. Compared with all U.S. adults, Latinos express more critical views," Pew said.

A narrow majority of Latinos, 52%, worry they or a family member or close friend might be deported, up from 42% of respondents to a survey last March and 39% in 2021 during the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

"Some 22% of Hispanics personally know someone who's been deported or detained by the U.S. federal government for immigration reasons in the last year," Pew said.

For the 32% of survey respondents who have contemplated leaving the United States, 46% cited the political situation in the United States and 26% cited a desire to be in a place where the cost of living is lower. A third of those who've considered leaving said they'd move to the country of their family's origin and 45% said they'd move somewhere else.

Looking ahead, a slight majority have a negative view of the future.

"About half (52%) say that a year from now, they think Hispanics' situation in the U.S. will be worse, while 16% think it will be better and 31% think it will stay the same," Pew said.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.