CV NEWS FEED // A progressive Latino organization highlighted in a recent report that three election and border policy polls indicate that since November 2023, a higher number of Latino voters view increasing border security as a top immigration policy priority.
The shift in priorities is tracked through three polls that were conducted by UnidosUS between November 2023 and September 2024.
According to UnidosUS Blog, the first poll conducted in November 2023 surveyed 3,037 Latino voters, asking them to rank several immigration-related issues in the order they think are most important for elected officials to address. A graph of the survey results showed that increasing border security was ranked fifth overall most important for the survey participants.
The second poll, conducted in June 2024, asked 800 registered voters to pick their top three priorities for immigration-related issues. Overall, increasing border security came fourth on the list, and “cracking down on human smugglers and drug traffickers” came third. The latter issue had not been listed as an issue in the November 2023 survey.
The third poll, conducted in September 2024, asked 3,000 eligible voters to sort 10 immigration-related issues in order of most important for elected officials to address. Overall, increasing border security came fifth, and “cracking down on human smugglers and drug traffickers” came second.
Each poll ranked providing a pathway to citizenship for people who have been in the country for a long time or who were brought to the country as children as the top priority.
The three polls’ findings, noting what specific policies were lowest in priority, indicate “why Latinos would support an immigration policy that’s firm and fair,” UnidosUS Blog reported. The polls’ findings on pathways to citizenship indicate that this issue “remains the defining policy priority for Latino voters.”
“Firmer measures like tackling illicit actors operating at the border and, to a lesser extent, increasing border security, emerged as a cornerstone of the measures they want policymakers to adopt in U.S. immigration policy,” the blog added.
“The prioritization of firm border security measures in the last two polls does not translate to support for hardline measures, however,” UnidosUS Blog noted, pointing out that the polling participants ranked finishing the US-Mexico border wall and deporting all undocumented immigrants among the lowest priorities in all of the surveys.
