A few days before the midterm elections in the United States, polls indicate that the issue of immigration remains an important issue among latino voters, despite the variety of opinions.

While polls show that a majority of Latinos have a grip on Democrats in their positions on immigration, the Republican Party has made significant gains in the past two years, even as it intensifies the anti-immigrant rhetoric popularized by former President Donald Trump.

As we reported earlier, according to a recent poll conducted by NYT/Siena College, overall, Latino voters are more likely to agree with Democrats on many issues such as immigration, gun policy and climate. The majority of this population, 56%, plans to vote for Democrats in the next election, compared to 32% who vote Republican."

Latinos represent more than 30 million of the country's registered voters, and candidates from both parties are engaged in major swing-vote contests.

Donald Trump unexpectedly made gains in the Rio Grande Valley in 2020 and the region recently elected the first Representative of the Republican Party in more than a century, after U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores won a special election in June this year.

According to CNN and as Republicans are engaged  in three congressional races in South Texas as a test of their appeal in the Latino community, “immigration attorney Carlos Gonzalez argues campaign promises often don’t lead to change. He says a sensible, balanced approach to reform is sorely needed, but missing from the public discourse surrounding immigration”.

“Neither party is addressing the issue well”, Gonzalez said. “Either they talk to the right, or they talk to the left, but they don’t come (to the border) and talk to us. They don’t see what we’re doing on a daily basis”.

In Florida, another state with a large Latino population, Republican Party Governor Ron DeSantis decided in September to take dozens of Venezuelan asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, “a move that pro-immigration advocate Maria Corina Vegas called a ‘stunt’.”

“It may make for interesting television, to raise money, to play to the base, to feed a narrative of grievance. That’s what populists do, effectively,” said Vegas, a deputy state director for the American Business Immigration Coalition, a group that promotes comprehensive immigration reform”, according to the same publication.

For Cuban-born entrepreneur Julio Cabrera, the issue is tied inextricably to the American economy: “This country moves because of immigrants and Latinos. […] We do the dirty jobs others do not want.”

“Cabrera is turned off by anti-immigrant rhetoric, he says, because the vast majority of immigrants entering the US are decent people looking to work and build a better life. He believes the immigration system should be kinder to those who have risked their lives for a better future”.

Younger voters, like Marvin Tapia, a Colombian-American who lives in Little Havana, argues the recent rise in anti-immigrant sentiment is tied to nationwide demographic change, which he says is a positive development more politicians should embrace.

“If we’re sharing a country built on immigrants, we should be proud of that. That we evolved and we grow and change. [...] I believe that growth is pivotal to the growth of a country, especially like the US. We should learn from it, instead of running from it”, according to CNN.