As the presidential elections get closer, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump continues to step up his anti-immigrant rhetoric, a strategy illustrated by a recent interview in which he suggested that there was a genetical predisposition to crime, and that the surge in unlawful arrivals during the Biden administration had led to there being "many bad genes in our country right now."
Moreover, during a stop at Aurora, Colorado on Friday, Trump claimed that immigrants are coming "from the dungeons of the third world", adding that undocumented immigrants "have to go back to where they came from."
Despite the rhetoric, most of which aimed at the Latino community, considering they make the larger portion of those seeking to migrate to the U.S., a recent The New York Times/Siena College poll revealed that most members of the demographic in the country don't think the inflammatory statements are directed at them.
Concretely, two-thirds of those surveyed said they believed Trump was not referring to people like them when he spoke about immigrants, while 50% of foreign-born Latino voters feel the same way.
Furthermore, the poll revealed what researchers labeled as "striking signs of support for Mr. Trump's most aggressive immigration policies":
"More than one-third of Hispanic voters say they support both building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and deporting immigrants who are living in the United States illegally. A vast majority of that support comes from Trump voters, but 9 percent of Harris voters also say the same. Support for such policies came largely from Latinos born in the United States."
Elsewhere, the survey shows Harris underperforming when compared to previous Democratic candidates on key issues such as the economy, immigration, and crime. In contrast, Trump has maintained his appeal to Latino voters, especially men, a particular demographic which the vice president has had trouble courting.
Although a quarter of Latino voters remain undecided or persuadable, Trump has attracted a small but notable portion of voters who supported President Joe Biden in 2020. Furthermore, younger Latino voters were more likely to feel that Trump's policies helped them compared to those of the Biden administration.
Despite this, most Latino voters still lean toward Democrats, with 57 percent believing the party understands their issues, although there is increasing skepticism about the party's ability to deliver on its promises.
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