Recent reports have shown a potential rightward shift from Latinos ahead of the upcoming presidential elections. But a new CBS News poll suggests otherwise, Latinos may actually be more open to voting for Biden, not because they like his policies and agree with his ideas, but merely to prevent the presumptive GOP nominee from being reelected.
The recently published study was conducted by CBS News and YouGov with a nationally representative sample of 2,063 U.S. adult residents interviewed between June 5-7. The data includes an oversample in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Caroline, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The survey found that Biden's voters have become increasingly centered around anti-Trump sentiment more so than affinity for Biden himself. In fact, most respondents say their main rationale for voting for Biden is opposing Trump.
In the study, views of the national economy continue to be a salient issue for voters, and perspectives are more negative today than they were in March, the survey says. This leads Biden to not have a meaningful advantage among Hispanics, a group he won handily in 2020. Conversely, more Hispanic voters think they will be financially better off if Trump wins than if Biden does.
Another top issue for voters— immigration— continued to be a divisive issue among voters.
When asked about Biden's recently announced executive order that shuts down the southern border after a daily threshold of 2,500 has been met, around 70% of respondents agreed with the policy.
Nevertheless, voters believe Trump's policies if he were reelected would improve the situation in the southern border. 49% of respondents said Biden policies would increase border crossings, compared to 5% of Trump's; 30% said Biden's policies would have no effect on border crossings, compared to Trump's 24%; and only 20% believed Biden's policies would actually decrease border crossings compared to Trump's 70%.
Trump himself has publicly denounced Biden's executive order. At his first campaign rally following his conviction in the historic hush-money trial, Trump dismissed Biden's executive order as a "little plan" that was "pro-invasion, pro-child trafficking, pro-women trafficking, pro-human trafficking, pro-drug dealers and all the deaths they bring and pro-illegal immigration."
Regarding other remedies, nearly six in 10 majority of voters say they would favor, in principle, a new government program to deport all undocumented migrants living in the U.S. illegally, with a third of those being Democrats.
A similarly sized majority would have local law enforcement try to identify those living in the U.S. illegally, and just under half support the idea of setting up large government detention centers to sort out which people ought to be deported.
These numbers concur with another study by The New York Times study that illustrates how public opinion has shifted over the past years, with half of the population now supporting mass deportations.
Aware of this, Trump continues to claim he will hold mass deportations if elected. In a recent interview, Trump said that he would resort to local police to do so, and he intends to give them "immunity" against potential legal challenges that may ensue as a result.
Similarly, in another April interview, he said he would use the National Guard "as he sees fit" throughout American cities to deport migrants if he's reelected. "If I thought things were getting out of control, I would have no problem using the military," he told Time magazine.
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