In brief
As President Trump's second term approaches its conclusion, Pew Research Center polls reveal that dissatisfaction among Hispanic adults is on the rise, with significant concerns over immigration enforcement and economic policy. Many express a growing fear of deportation and a perceived decline in their status within American society. The survey finds declining approval for Trump's handling of key issues compared to the previous year, painting a troubling picture for the administration’s relationship with Hispanic voters.
As the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term comes to a close, two new polls from the Pew Research Center find that Hispanic adults are increasingly unhappy with the way his administration is handling the economy and immigration, issues that were key for voters during last year’s election.
The surveys of more than 5,000 Hispanic adults in the U.S., conducted in October and September, found that a year after Trump eroded the Democrats’ traditional advantage with Latino voters, most Hispanic adults are feeling worse about their place in the country, and they’re more likely to be worried that they or someone close to them could be deported than they were earlier this year.
Declining approval of Trump
About two-thirds of Hispanic adults overall disapprove of the Trump administration’s approach to immigration, while 61% say his economic policies have made conditions worse.
Hispanic voters shifted toward Trump in the 2024 election, though a majority still backed Democrat Kamala Harris. According to AP VoteCast, 43% of Hispanic voters nationally supported Trump, up from 35% in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The vast majority of Hispanics who reported voting for Trump in 2024 — 81% — approve of the president’s job performance, although that’s declined from 93% at the start of his second term. Nearly all Hispanic Harris voters disapprove of Trump’s performance.
Pew’s findings echo an October survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which found that 25% of Hispanic adults have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of Trump, down from 44% in an AP-NORC poll conducted just before the Republican took office in January.
The shift in opinion underscores how worried and dissatisfied many Hispanic adults feel. Although many Hispanic voters were motivated by economic concerns in last year’s election, recent polls indicate that Hispanic adults continue to feel higher financial stress than Americans overall.
Rising anxiety about Hispanics’ place in the U.S.
About two-thirds of Hispanic adults say the situation for Hispanics in the U.S. is worse than it was a year ago. That’s higher than in 2019, during Trump’s first term, when 39% thought U.S. Hispanics’ situation had worsened over the past year.
Similarly, about 8 in 10 Hispanic adults say Trump’s policies harm more than help them. These views are more negative than in 2019, when about 7 in 10 said the first Trump administration’s policies were more harmful to Hispanics than helpful.
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