By Emi Tuyetnhi Tran and Suzanne Gamboa —
NBC News
Most Latinos agree there are problems at the U.S.-Mexico border, but they are generally less likely than other Americans to see more deportations and more border walls as effective responses, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
The analysis released Monday found that about three-quarters of Latinos surveyed consider the growing number of immigrants attempting to cross the border to be a major problem or crisis.
About the same proportion
believe the federal government is doing a poor job on the matter.
Migrants wait to be processed after crossing the border with Mexico, near Jacumba Hot Springs, California, on February 2, 2024. Gregory Bull / AP
About two-thirds of Latinos indicated that speeding up asylum decisions by increasing the number of judges and staff would alleviate the problem, while 58% believed that creating more ways to immigrate legally would be a tool to solve it.
But only a third of Hispanics supported increasing deportations of people who are in the country irregularly and only about a quarter considered that substantially expanding a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico would be a way to resolve it. .
By comparison, a majority of non-Hispanic Americans (55%) supported more deportations to address the crisis, although less than half, 45%, agreed that expanding the border wall would help.
[By blocking Texas' SB-4 law, a federal judge said immigration spikes are not an invasion]
Immigration has become a major issue in the 2024 elections, and Republicans have been increasing their share of Latino voters.
The report analyzed data from a survey conducted between January 16 and 21 of more than 5,000 American adults, including 879 Hispanics.
The survey comes about a month after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported its highest monthly number of illegal crossings, at just over 300,000.
Those encounters include people who cross and are detained, including those who are released pending an asylum decision and those who are immediately deported.
The statistics may include people who have previously attempted to cross without success, so the number of individuals may differ from the number of arrests.
The opinion of Latinos on the immigration crisis and its solutions
In addition to increasing the number of immigration judges and staff, the majority of Latino adults surveyed, 57%, agree that making it easier for immigrants to work legally while awaiting decisions on their asylum status would help the current situation.
But less than half, 40%, agreed that it would be useful to increase resources to provide a safe and clean place for people arriving in the country.
Regarding the reasons why migrants seek to cross the border and request asylum in the United States,
Latinos and non-Latinos share similar ideas and beliefs.
The prevailing view is that poor economic conditions in Latin America and good economic opportunities in the United States lead many immigrants to make the journey.
Latino immigrants are only slightly more likely than U.S.-born Latinos to cite economic conditions as a reason for the large number of asylum seekers at the border.
In partisan terms, Democratic and Republican Latinos agree that economic conditions in their country and in the United States are an important factor in the current situation of immigrants.
However, Latino Democrats are more likely than Republicans to recognize violence in migrants' countries of origin as a primary motivation for crossing the border.
On the other hand, Republican Latinos are more likely to believe that U.S. immigration policies make it easier for immigrants to believe they can stay in the country after receiving asylum, which is driving most of the current migration.