“Immigrant voters, foreign-born voters, have gone tremendously to the right on this issue in 2024 and 2025 versus where they were in 2020,” CNN's Harry Enten explained. Back in 2020, Democrats enjoyed a comfortable 32-point lead among immigrant voters on the issue of immigration. But those days are gone. According to Enten, there has been “a 40-point shift to the right among immigrant voters,” and Republicans now lead Democrats by eight points on the issue, more than with any other demographic group.

This isn’t a marginal shift; it’s a political earthquake. And it’s not just about party preference; it’s also about attitudes toward Donald Trump himself.

Long dismissed as radioactive to immigrant voters, Trump is now seeing a surge in support that few thought possible. In 2016, he pulled 36% of the immigrant citizen vote. That ticked up to 39% in 2020. But in 2024, he’s jumped to 47% — and in some polls, he’s either tied or outright leading among immigrant voters. It’s a stunning political reversal that shatters the old assumptions.

That political shift mirrors a broader transformation in how immigrant citizens perceive illegal immigration. Back in 2020, illegal immigrants enjoyed a net favorable rating of +23 points among immigrant voters. By 2024, that number had plunged to -6. This dramatic drop completely undercuts the left’s go-to narrative that immigrant communities automatically align in solidarity with those here illegally.