Poll Shows Big Gap in Latino Trust in GOP Border Policies

Only 30 percent of Latino voters trust the GOP more than the Democratic Party to handle border and immigration policies, says a poll by NBC News and the Spanish-language Telemundo TV network.

The September 17-22 poll of 1,000 registered Latino voters were asked: “Which party do you think would do a better job–the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, or both about the same …. dealing with immigration”?

Thirty percent picked the GOP, but 41 percent picked the Democrat Party. Fourteen percent said “neither” and 14 percent said, “both about the same.”

But the GOP’s 30 percent trust was far lower than the 44 percent of Latino voters who said the border is insecure.

The GOP’s failure to earn popular support on immigration is revealed by the wide gap between the 30 percent who trust the GOP on the border and the 44 percent who believe the border is insecure.

The gap exists, in part, because donor-funded GOP candidates ignore the pocketbook impact of migration on voters. Instead, most GOP candidates promote the donor-backed don’t-mention-the-money message about border chaos, crime, terrorism, and drugs.

However, a populist jobs-and-wages pitch is propelling Texas GOP candidate Monica De La Cruz towards an election win in her mostly-Latino Texas district.

“The last thing we need to be doing is driving down wages and that’s the first thing illegal immigration does,” De La Cruz told Breitbart News, which reported:

“In manual labor … wages can drop by $800 to $1,500 a year,” De La Cruz said. “I don’t know any single family that can stand losing $1,500 a year. That could be two to three months of baby formula or eight months of gas. The downward pressure that illegal immigration has on wages is an economic fact and a reality.”

In De La Cruz’s south Texas district, the economic burden of illegal immigration can be a make-or-break moment for many Hispanic American families. Most American adults agree.

A survey from May found that about 73 percent of Americans believe their job prospects are cut as a result of mass immigration. Only 26 percent said illegal immigration does not pose a risk to the U.S. labor market.

“The average income for Hispanic families is $54,000 per year. Hispanics tend to have larger families which means more mouths to feed and less money to do that … this is a gut punch to American workers,” De La Cruz said.

Nationally, voter trust in the GOP to handle migration is weak.

For example, a Washington Post/ABC News September poll of 1,006 adults asked: “Which political party … do you trust to do a better job handling immigration?” Forty-four percent picked Democrats, and just 43 percent picked Republicans. “Neither ” scored seven percent, “both” got two percent, and four percent reported no opinion.

House GOP leaders are offering some campaign promises to close the gap.

The GOP’s 30 percent trust score, however, is up from 19 percent in September 2014, before Donald Trump was elected in 2016.

Other GOP candidates are addressing the pocketbook impact of migration. In August, for example, New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis told Fox News:

You have the Mayor [New York Mayor Eric Adams] putting up people in fancy hotels — upwards of $700 a night — costing the taxpayers $300 million. You have our governor providing free health care to illegal immigrants when you have senior citizens who are struggling to pay for their Medicare. You have payouts — $2 billion in stimulus checks [to illegal migrants, but] when you have a single mother who has three children [and is] earning $9,000 who got no stimulus check from the government.

Then [Gov.] Kathy Hochul tells New Yorkers — she tells her taxpaying citizens — “If you don’t like it, move to Florida!” That’s how disgusting it has become under one-party Democrat rule at the city, state, and federal level.

In May, the GOP’s Senate candidate in Alabama, Katie Britt, told Breitbart News:

Alabamians are disproportionately hurt by the immigration system right now. You’ve got two things going [from immigration]. First, continual driving down of wages [in Alabama]. Second, the coastal elites are able to fill their workforce needs [with immigrants] and we lose the opportunity to allow our workers [in Alabama] to compete for those jobs [created by coastal investors].

Biden’s deputies have worked with allies in the major media to hide the damage caused by mass migration. This PR campaign has largely been successful in reducing the visibility of the issue in the election. In April 2022, just 30 percent said the border was secure, far below the current 44 percent level.

Overall, 57 percent of the Latino voters also said the country is on the wrong track, and only 51 percent approve of Biden’s job performance.

Just 33 percent of the Latino voters want the GOP to control Congress, while 54 prefer a Democratic-run Congress.