Majority of Hispanics Now Favor Mass Deportation

A recent poll found that a majority of Hispanic people favor the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

The CBS News/YouGov poll found that a majority of registered voters overall (62 percent) would favor the government starting “a new national program to deport all undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally.” Thirty-eight percent said they would oppose it.

The survey polled 1,615 registered voters between June 5 and 7, and had a margin of error of 3.8 points.

Notably, the poll found that mass deportation was popular with Hispanics, with 53 percent saying they would favor such a program and 47 percent saying they would oppose it. White people were more supportive of mass deportations, with 67 percent saying they would support the program, and 33 percent saying they would oppose it. Among Black people, it was 47 percent in favor and 53 percent opposed.

An Axios poll published in April also found that a majority of Americans support the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, including 45 percent of Latinos who were in favor of such a measure.

The results of the latest survey indicate that many would back former President Donald Trump’s plan to launch the largest deportation operation in U.S. history if he wins back the White House in November.

But a “much smaller portion of Americans who purport to favor mass deportation of undocumented immigrants would support what it would practically entail,” Thomas Gift, an associate professor of political science and director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, U.K., told Newsweek.

“Showing papers on-demand. Racial profiling. A huge increase in the number and scale of ICE raids. But the polling is reflective of just how dissatisfied American voters are with the failure of both Republicans and Democrats to secure the border. Immigration is again surging to the top of the ‘most important problem’ list because Washington has shown itself completely ill-equipped to execute common-sense immigration enforcement.”

Immigration regularly ranks among voters’ top issues ahead of November’s election, set to be a rematch of the 2020 race between President Joe Biden and Trump.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has made cracking down on immigration a centerpiece of his campaign, repeating the strategy that fueled his previous rise to power. In speeches and online, Trump has ramped up anti-immigrant rhetoric, casting migrants as criminals who are “poisoning the blood” of America.

In a lengthy interview with Time magazine in April, Trump said he’d use the National Guard as part of efforts to deport millions of migrants across the country in a second term—and wouldn’t be opposed to using active duty military.

“If I thought things were getting out of control, I would have no problem using the military, per se,” he said. “We have to have safety in our country. We have to have law and order in our country. And whichever gets us there, but I think the National Guard will do the job.”

Biden took executive action earlier this month that effectively halts asylum claims at the southern border, an effort to deflect attacks against him on his handling of immigration.

The order, which went into effect on June 5, limits asylum processing once encounters with migrants between ports of entry reach 2,500 per day. It immediately went into effect because the latest figures were far higher, at about 4,000 daily.

However, recent figures show that the order is having little effect on the number of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile, immigration advocacy groups have sued the Biden administration over the action.

Biden has said that Republicans had left him with no choice but to take executive action after tanking bipartisan legislation that would have overhauled the asylum system to provide faster and tougher immigration enforcement at Trump’s urging.

Update 6/17/24, 5:45 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add comment from Thomas Gift.