Complicated Loyalties: Latino Attitudes About Immigration in an Era of Changing Identities and Demographics
2026-07-15
As evidenced by its prominence in the 2024 presidential election, and subsequent Trump administration policies, immigration remains a polarizing and controversial topic in U.S. politics. While Latinos have historically been perceived as largely supportive of liberal immigration policy, recent events and the shifting identities and demographics of the Latino population call this perception into question. Given changes among the Latino electorate, we investigate immigration attitudes within this increasingly diverse community. Using the largest public opinion dataset in the United States, we analyze attitudes toward restrictive immigration policy of over 30,000 Latinos. We evaluate the effects of identity through predictors such as nativity, immigration status, group perceptions, partisanship, and ideology to understand the correlates of Latino public opinion toward immigration. Our findings highlight the role of conservative ideology, which is increasingly becoming an important component of Latino identity, in driving support for restrictionist policies and the minimal influence of nativity or language use. We also find that other components related to identity, such as beliefs about discrimination, correlate strongly with immigration attitudes. Our results underscore the complexity of Latino public opinion and the countervailing factors that result from various identities among Latinos regarding immigration policy.