Legal Immigrants Have Swung 40 Points Right On Immigration, Favor GOP: Polling Expert

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten said Tuesday that foreign-born voters in the United States have swung toward the Republican Party on immigration by 40 points since 2020.

Immigrant voters have swung harder to the Right than any other demographic, Enten said. The transformation has come side-by-side with large gains by President Donald Trump among immigrant voters, as well.

“Foreign-born voters have gone tremendously to the Right on this issue in 2024 and 2025 versus where they were in 2020,” said Enten. “You go back to 2020, Democrats, get this, held a 32-point lead on this issue. Immigrant voters were in the Democratic camp. Jump forward to 2024, 2025. Look at that shift. A 40-point shift to the Right among immigrant voters.”

“Republicans now lead on this issue by eight points over Democrats, more so than any other group that I could find,” he added.

No group has become more hawkish on immigration & shifted to the GOP than immigrants.

Immigrant voters
-Trust more on immigration in 2020: Dem +32 pt to Now: GOP +8 pt
-Net fav of immigrants here illegally: +23 pt in '20, -6 pt in '24
-Trump's vote: 36% in '16 to 47% in '24! pic.twitter.com/YebaSvfL7D

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) June 10, 2025

Since 2016, Trump’s signature issue has been immigration, and he appears to have benefitted politically from immigrants’ views swinging hard to the Right on the issue. Among immigrants who are registered to vote in the United States, Trump has gained 11 points in support since his first presidential campaign.

“Look at this, 2016, he got 36 percent of the vote. You go to 2020, 39 percent of the vote. Look at this, in 2024, all the way up to 47 percent of the vote,” said Enten. “Some polls I looked at had him barely losing that vote. Some polls I looked at had him barely winning that vote. Again, there is no bloc of voters that shifted more to the Right from 2020 to 2024 than immigrant voters.”

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Immigrant voters have also soured in their views on illegal immigrants. In 2020, foreign-born voters had a 23-point positive view of illegal immigrants. In 2024, the consensus flipped to become a 6-point negative view of illegal immigrants, according to Enten.

Enten’s analysis of the legal immigrants’ views on immigration comes as Trump has responded forcefully to anti-immigration enforcement riots in the Los Angeles area. After days of unrest over federal immigration operations, the president ordered 2,000 National Guard troops into Los Angeles on Sunday, followed by more guardsmen and Marines on Monday.

Rioters and demonstrators have attacked law enforcement, burned vehicles, and written threatening messages to federal immigration agents in recent days as the Trump administration has stepped up deportation operations in the Los Angeles area.

Democrats in California have fought Trump on the immigration operations. Governor Gavin Newsom backed a state lawsuit against the administration on Monday claiming that Trump’s orders sending in the military to quell the riots and protect law enforcement violated the law.