PHOENIX (AP) 鈥� As Sandra Ramirez watched footage of immigration officers over the past year, she knew her 2024 vote for Donald Trump was a mistake.
鈥淭here are a lot of people who are being harassed for the color of their skin, and that鈥檚 not right,鈥� said Ramirez, who broke from her Democrat-voting family to cast a ballot for Trump.
鈥淚鈥檒l never go Republican again,” she said.
Trump made like Ramirez during the 2024 elections, earning support that helped propel him to a second term in the White House.
As Republicans gear up for midterms this fall and look ahead to presidential elections in 2028, all eyes are on whether they can hold on to that key support or whether the administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown and an economy beset by high prices may drive Latino voters away.
In a sign of looming danger, recent shows support for Trump falling fast among that electorate.
Support among Latino Trump voters shows signs of softening
Latino voters have historically been largely aligned with the Democratic Party but during the 2024 election, . A majority still supported Democrat Kamala Harris for president, but Trump made big gains: nationally voted for him, compared with 35% in the 2020 presidential election, a change attributed in part to .
Trump returned to office pledging to crack down on immigration, a promise that prompted arrest sweeps, often against Latino migrants, in homes, workplaces and schools, among others. According to an AP-NORC poll, report knowing someone impacted by the Trump administration鈥檚 aggressive immigration enforcement.
More than a year into Trump鈥檚 second term, polling suggests a significant drop in support for the president among Latinos who voted for him in 2024, although a majority still supports him.
According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in April, support for the president fell among non-Latino voters from 95% to 79% between February of last year and April of 2026. But among Latino voters who cast their ballot for Trump, the drop-off was more dramatic: 66% approved of his job performance in April compared with 93% at the beginning of his second term.
That national drop could prove crucial in a tight election in swing counties like Maricopa, the largest battleground county in the nation, which encompasses Phoenix and its suburbs. A third of Maricopa County residents are Latino, and one in four of them is an immigrant, according to the Latino Data Hub at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Arizona, which also saw a slight in 2024, has been a flashpoint in the immigration debate for years. Maricopa County Sheriff conducted high-profile raids in Latino communities and, later, the state saw large influxes of migrants during the Biden administration.
In South Phoenix, opinions on Trump reflect deep divisions
On a warm afternoon in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of south Phoenix, a vendor at a street fair sold shirts imprinted with phrases like 鈥淟owriders Sunday鈥� while car club members polished their Chevrolets. The parking lot of the nearby Catholic church was full of parishioners attending Spanish-language Sunday Mass.
Albert Rodriguez, a Phoenix tattoo artist, said he once supported Trump. But then he saw how the administration was carrying out enforcement operations in Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles.
He said the president promised to go after immigrants who were criminals, but instead Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been 鈥渉itting the paleta man,鈥� referring to ordinary people trying to make a living from selling frozen treats.
鈥淏ig time, I regret it,鈥� Rodriguez said of his 2024 vote for Trump.
Phoenix resident Ronnie Martinez, an Army veteran, backs at the southern border.
鈥淭he border is only a hop, skip and a jump to our south. And I don鈥檛 want illegal alien criminals coming from Guatemala, Venezuela, Central America,鈥� he said.
He didn鈥檛 like some of the images he鈥檇 seen of ICE arresting people in front of their children. But he was also sympathetic to ICE officers, who he said were doing the best they could in difficult situations, and he blamed Democratic officials who weren鈥檛 cooperating with immigration enforcement. He also cited economic initiatives as a reason for his continued support for the president, including the and overtime.
Guadalupe Alaffa, another Phoenix resident, blamed President Joe Biden’s policies for prompting Trump’s immigration crackdown.
鈥淗e left that damn border wide open,鈥� said Alaffa.
Arizona battleground politics shaped by Latino voter influence
The growing influence of Latino voters is one of several factors that have eroded the GOP鈥檚 decades-long dominance in Arizona, putting the state at the center of congressional and presidential elections. Both of Arizona鈥檚 senators are now Democrats, along with the top three state officials.
Winning back some of the Latinos who shifted to Trump will be crucial to the reelection prospects of , Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Attorney General Kris Mayes, all Democrats first elected in 2022.
Democrats in Maricopa County have benefited from more than a decade of political organizing among Latinos mobilizing against hard-line immigration enforcement. The Republican-controlled Legislature in 2010 passed , which required police to check the immigration status of anyone they suspected of being in the country illegally.
Around the same time, Sheriff Arpaio was building a national profile on the right with immigration sweeps in largely Latino neighborhoods.
Some activists see the nationwide crackdown on immigrants as an extension of what Latinos in Arizona endured under Arpaio.
鈥淲e were the lab where they implemented a lot of this with Sheriff Joe and now it鈥檚 all over the United States,鈥� said Salvador Reza, a longtime activist in Phoenix who advocates for the rights of day laborers.
For over two decades, Arpaio was repeatedly elected while his department faced accusations of racially profiling Latino drivers and conducting sweeps in Latino neighborhoods and day labor areas. Deputies often stopped residents for traffic violations and turned noncitizens over to ICE, according to rights groups.
In 2013, a federal judge ruled his office had illegally profiled and detained Latinos, and a 2011 Justice Department report found widespread discrimination. After losing reelection in 2016, Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt for defying court orders. He .
Rising prices and immigration enforcement erode Latino support
The GOP is at risk of losing some of the Latinos that Trump won over, said , who signed the controversial 2010 bill. She cited economic concerns as a possible reason for the drop in support.
鈥淲ith the inflation and the cost of living and the gasoline and the wars, I don鈥檛 know if they can afford to be a Trump Republican,” Brewer said.
Earl Wilcox, a longtime activist and restaurant owner in Phoenix, said between affordability issues and immigration enforcement, he believes Latino support for Trump is waning. Wilcox’s restaurant hosted Biden in 2024 when he launched an initiative for the Democratic ticket.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think the Republican Party will have the support it did the second time around,” Wilcox said, 鈥渁nd I think it started with the raids.鈥�
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Associated Press writers Jonathan J. Cooper and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux contributed to this report.
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