US Latinos say their situation is getting worse under Trump

Impact

After running a campaign fueled by xenophobia and talk of "bad hombres," Donald Trump has a very unhappy Latino population on his hands. 

A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows that, not only do a sizeable portion of Latinos in the U.S. believe that they have it harder now than they did a year ago, the amount that say it's getting worse is actually growing. 

According to the survey, 32% of Latinos say their situation in the U.S. has gotten worse in the past year. Only 15% said the same thing in 2013. Meanwhile, 49% of Latinos say their situation is about the same, down from 58% in 2013. A much smaller portion of Latinos think their situation has gotten better — 16% — down from 25% four years ago. 

Jose Luis Magana/AP

One factor behind these numbers is the growing threat of deportation. The survey, taken in the days prior to Trump's inauguration, preceded Trump's newly released list expanding the scope of immigrants being targeted for deportation and the aggressive raids carried out by the Department of Homeland Security beginning earlier in February. 

However, Latinos taking the survey were weary of the then-president-elect's policies. Just under half, 47%, of Latinos said they worried "a lot" or "some" that either they or a close family member or friend would be deported. Among undocumented Latinos, that number was 67%. 

However, immigration came in fifth on a list of issues that Latinos believed should be a top priority for Congress. Only 46% said Congress should make immigration a priority, behind fixing the education system (73%), terrorism (69%), the economy (66%) and reducing health care costs (54%).

Since Trump took office, he's furthered plans to build his pet project, a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Given Trump's recent plans to break another campaign promise and increase the population in America's detention centers, who knows what Latino satisfaction in America will look like next year.