Findings are from a DDIA poll of 3,000 Latinos conducted in September 2024, the full findings of which were released in February 2025.
TAKEAWAYS: Latinos & Immigration
The Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA) partnered with YouGov to conduct a nationally representative poll of 3,000 U.S. Latino adults, from September 6 to September 30, 2024, in English and Spanish.
The poll explored the five key topics below. This document outlines takeaways from the highlighted areas:
Familiarity and belief in a series of misinformation narratives and claims, including over time.
Changes in levels of trust in elections, and efficacy and vote intention since the primaries.
Agreement with new election-specific claims about Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Sentiments around immigration-related topics.
Updated views on generative-AI technologies and regulation.
How do Latinos in the United States feel about immigration-related statements made and discussed during the 2024 election cycle?
Our findings indicate strong positive attitudes among U.S. Latinos toward immigrants in general, with high levels of agreement among Latinos we polled that “immigrants positively contribute to American communities” and that “immigrants improve America by bringing new ideas and cultures.”
BUT, when it comes to unauthorized immigration, beliefs become more complex.
Nearly half of Latino survey respondents agree that “increased illegal immigration brings increased crime” (47% agree) and that “immigrants can be a drain on local resources” (44% agree).
That said, Latinos mostly reject the statement that “immigrants take jobs away from people who were born in the United States” (52% disagree).
The statements break down as follows:
“Immigrants take jobs away from people born in the U.S.”: 52.1% disagree, 29.1% agree.
“Immigrants can be a drain on local resources”: 35.8% disagree, 43.7% agree.
“Increased illegal immigration brings increased crime”: 34% disagree, 47.1% agree.
“Immigrants improve America by bringing new ideas and cultures”: 16.3% disagree, 63.5% agree.
“Immigrants positively contribute to American communities”: 15.4% disagree, 63.9% agree.
Across the first poll we conducted in March/April and this poll conducted in September 2024, we found that similar numbers of Latinos accepted claims that Democrats were failing to secure the border for electoral gain and narratives that Democrats were engaging in electoral fraud.
Just slightly over 40% of those who had seen “Democrats are failing to secure the U.S. southern border in order to allow undocumented immigrants to vote for them in U.S. elections” accepted the claim in both of our surveys.
These estimates stayed pretty similar across waves (41% in our March/April poll; 40% in our September poll).
Latino respondents were also asked to choose their preferred immigration policy from the following set of options:
Increase legal immigration and provide a path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants
Keep legal immigration at current levels and provide a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants
Keep legal immigration at current levels and deport most undocumented immigrants
Decrease legal immigration and deport most undocumented immigrants
Drastically reduce both legal and illegal immigration
Remove all restrictions on immigration
Something else
Not sure
None of the above
The distribution of responses across these options offers important insight into prevailing immigration policy preferences among Latino respondents:
Half of all Latinos surveyed supported maintaining or expanding legal immigration while offering a path to citizenship for some or most undocumented immigrants.
The most popular policy across all age, gender, income, education, and political subgroups was “Keep legal immigration at current levels and provide a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants.” While support levels varied slightly by group, this policy received the highest share of support in every demographic and accounted for 30% of the overall sample.
Another 20% supported “Increasing legal immigration and providing a path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants.”
By contrast, only 13% indicated their preferred policy was deport most undocumented immigrants while maintaining current legal immigration levels,” and just 6% supported “drastically reducing both legal and illegal immigration.”
Support for more restrictive immigration policies, such as “Keep legal immigration at current levels and deport most undocumented immigrants” and “Decrease legal immigration and deport most undocumented immigrants”, was highest among older respondents, with 44% of those aged 65 and older favoring deportation-leaning approaches. Similarly, 44% of Republicans supported some form of deportation.
In contrast, younger Latinos (ages 18–29) showed stronger support for legalization pathways, with 57% favoring policies such as increasing legal immigration and providing a path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants, or maintaining current legal immigration levels while offering citizenship to some undocumented immigrants. This preference was also shared by 67% of Democrats and 39% of Independents.
Notably, only 6% of respondents supported “drastically reducing both legal and illegal immigration,” while just 4% supported the opposite extreme, “removing all restrictions on immigration.”
Additionally, 16% of Latinos selected “something else” (4%), “not sure” (10%), or “none of the above” (2%), suggesting that a notable portion of the population may seek more nuanced or hybrid policy alternatives that weren’t captured by the listed options.
** For additional insights on immigration, check out Equis Research’s May 2025 Poll on Latinos, Trump and Immigration, released on May 14, 2025.