Our America? Anti-Immigration and Latino Support for Trump

In the 2024 United States presidential election, Donald Trump won the highest proportion of the Latino vote ever obtained by a Republican candidate in modern history. Despite his anti-immigration positions and policies, the number of votes cast in Trump?s favor increased unexpectedly among the demographic group most strongly associated with the issue of immigration. While this historic realignment shocked observers of Latinos/as politics, its early stages could already be discerned in the 2020 elections. In that year, Latino/as displayed a variation in electoral behavior that was considerably greater than might be expected if one relied solely on narratives primarily emphasizing their ethnic solidarity. This article advances a counterintuitive explanation for this trend: it is precisely Trump?s anti-immigration stances?rather than a rejection of them?that account for his growing support among Latino voters. Our findings question the common association in the context of U.S. politics between Latinos/as and permissive immigration policy, as well as the very meaning of the ethos of pan-Latinidad. Moreover, because Latinos/as who hold anti-immigration sentiments are disproportionately concentrated in certain swing states, we identify them as a pivotal political force capable of shaping election results in unexpected ways.