Latino voters More back Trump despite his anti-migrant policies

Dan Soza has seen the harsh realities of Donald Trump's immigration policies up close - and he's alarmed that many Latino voters in Saginaw do not take the former president's threats of mass deportations seriously.

- Chris McGreal

As a child welfare officer, Soza places young unaccompanied refugees in foster families. He watched the Trump administration's separation of children from their parents at the Mexican border in 2018 with alarm. He said the cruelty of that policy, and the former president's threats against refugees legally in the US, should serve as a warning that Trump might do what he says.

“A lot of people who are Latino or Hispanic, whether it be in Saginaw, Michigan, or in the country - when they hear him say those things, they don't think he's talking about them,” said Soza. “What really worries me is that people don't remember their history. This has happened before. We've seen mass deportations before and American citizens were deported.”

Support for Trump is rising among Latinos, who account for about 15% of voters, across the US. A recent Siena poll for the New York Times showed that nearly one in 10 Hispanic voters - people with roots in Spanish-speaking countries - who backed Biden in 2020 will vote for Trump this year. Support for Democratic presidential candidates among Hispanic and Latino voters has been sliding for years. Barack Obama won about 70% of their votes. Polls give Harris just 56%.

The Siena poll identified Harris as losing ground among Hispanic voters over immigration, the economy and crime. Meanwhile, Trump has strengthened his support even as his anti-immigrant rhetoric has become more threatening - and, with some Hispanic voters, because of it.

Two-thirds say that they “do not feel like he is talking about me” when Trump calls Mexican migrants rapists, claims immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and threatens to invoke wartime powers to deport millions of people. More than 40% back Trump's pledge to finish building a wall on the border with Mexico, and his deportation policy.