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Know This Now, September 25, 2026: New Bipartisan ABIC/AFU Poll: Battleground Latino Voters Favor Candidates Who Prioritize Work Permits and Legal Pathways for Immigrants

By September 25, 2026October 14th, 2026No Comments

New bipartisan polling from ABIC Action and American Families United was featured in Axios this week, showing President Trump’s gains with Latino voters have faded amid dissatisfaction on immigration and the economy. 

Our pollsters are Daron Shaw of the Fox News Polling Team and the Hoover Institute, and Matt Barreto BSP Research founder and former VP Kamala Harris 2024 Pollster 

Nearly half of Hispanic voters backed Trump in the 2024 election, but our polling shows a much different picture with less than 40 days remaining before the midterm elections:




Democrats lead Republicans 56%-29% on the generic House ballot among 1,353 Latino registered voters in seven battleground states surveyed by BSP Research/Shaw & Co. for the poll. Dems hold the advantage in six battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, while in Florida Republicans hold a slight 44%-43% edge.


Battleground Latino voters across the political spectrum favored candidates that back a bipartisan path to permanent legal status, as well as work permits for long-term immigrant workers.


Join an exclusive Comité de 100, American Families United and ABIC Action briefing on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 11 AM EST to learn more from the bipartisan pollsters themselves: Daron Shaw of the Fox News Polling Team and the Hoover Institute, and Matt Barreto UCLA Professor and BSP Research founder.


CTA BUTTON: Register for 9/29 Poll Briefing 

Register for 9/29 Poll Briefing




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Keep U.S. Military Families Together

ABIC was proud to join with American Families United and Repatriate Our Patriots at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, alongside veterans, military families, Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Ron Wyden (D-OR)  and partner organizations including Forward Latino.



We came together to call on the administration to honor military parole in place, which protects the undocumented spouses, parents, and children of service members and veterans from deportation and lets them apply for a green card. Today those applications sit pending while ICE detains and deports the very families the policy was built to protect, and service members deploy without knowing whether their families will still be here when they come home.

Our message was simple: keep your end of the bargain and keep military families together. We are also asking Congress to write these protections into law, so they do not disappear with a change in administration.


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More from the Comité de 100 Midterm Watch:

Mirroring the new ABIC/AFU poll findings, The New York Times’ top political analyst wrote this week that Hispanic voters are shifting sharply away from Republicans and transforming the midterm map. In the most recent Times/ Sienna national poll, Democrats are leading 64% to 29% among Hispanic likely voters on the generic congressional ballot. The shift could put Republican-held seats in Texas and Florida at risk, particularly districts where GOP redistricting efforts relied on maintaining Trump’s 2024 gains among Hispanic voters.

“With Democrats surging back among Hispanic voters, many of the districts that Republicans hoped to flip might remain in the Democratic camp,” Nate Cohn wrote.


A Vox analysis of “How Latinos became America’s biggest swing vote,” pointed to Latino voters’ concerns over the economy, cost of living and immigration enforcement that Latino voters say is broadly targeting undocumented immigrants, not focusing on criminals.

Stephanie Valencia, co-founder and president of Equis, a research firm that follows the Latino electorate, cautions that this dissatisfaction does not automatically translate into support for Democrats:

“I think it is a huge mistake for Democrats to rest on their laurels… the Democratic brand has suffered a repeated set of blows among Latino voters. 20 years of comprehensive immigration reform that hasn’t been delivered.”

Journalist and author Paola Ramos was on MS NOW this week sharing her experience talking with Latino Trump voters in the Rio Grande Valley. She said the aggressive immigration crackdown in the area has made even former MAGA voters feel vulnerable: “It’s making them now question, suddenly, their own belonging in this land they thought was theirs.”
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TPS Changes Hit Healthcare, Hospitality with Worker Shortages


Seat the Table’s Capitol Hill event last week rallying lawmakers and business leaders in support of work permits and other bipartisan immigration solutions already on the “menu” in Congress was covered by El Pais this week. The piece highlighted that immigration enforcement and the loss of critical TPS workers are creating workforce shortages across farms, restaurants, hospitality and food businesses.

More than half of restaurant operators nationwide report being harmed by immigration policies. Florida restaurant owner Bill Lay, who owns five restaurants in Key West, said at the Seat the Table event, “People aren’t showing up to work because they’re scared,” adding that businesses have changed their hours and hotels have taken rooms out of service because they cannot find enough workers. “Do the math and you’ll see what’s coming,” he warned. Watch video highlights of his remarks on ABIC Action Facebook.

The shortages are already hitting healthcare hard as well, reported AFP, particularly because of the loss of Haitian TPS. More than a third of Haitians who held TPS worked in the sector. Healthcare workers and industry leaders say the departures are leaving nursing homes and home-care providers short-staffed, affecting the care available to vulnerable patients. Nancy Hagans, a New York City healthcare union leader, said 21 workers were let go at her facility and described the resulting situation as “chaos.” “These workers were providing care to the most vulnerable,” she said.

Meanwhile, 170,000 Salvadorans with TPS are still waiting in limbo for long-term guidance on their status, reports The Las Vegas Review Journal. Some have called the U.S. home for decades and now don’t know how long they’ll be able to legally remain in the country. If Salvadoran TPS is ended, the economic and human costs of uprooting and splitting families apart would be immense. Many Salvadorans with TPS have deep roots in their American communities and many have American children as well.
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Perspectives

The New York Post Editorial Board argues that President Trump can win back swing voters on immigration by embracing the Dignity Act. The Dignity Act balances border security with a path for law-abiding immigrants to stay in the U.S., and has some bipartisan support. The Editorial Board wrote this approach aligns with public opinion and could help Trump and the GOP in the upcoming elections.

“The prez could make a big difference by embracing the Dignity Act as the basis for immigration reform he’d like to see passed in the next two years…The president can now help his own party, the sane share of the opposition and the nation as a whole by standing up for the commonsense consensus on immigration.”

Get Involved

  1. Join one of ABIC’s Councils of 100 and let your voice be heard with your peers – sign up here. The Council of 100 is a coalition of top business leaders working to advance common-sense workforce solutions.
  2. Share your story: If your business is interested in engaging with the press as part of ABIC or amplifying your story on social media, take this quick survey to let us know your preferences. 
  3. Work with us: ABIC is hiring! We are looking for a California State Director and Digital Manager to join our growing team. Learn more.

Always available: ABIC Employer Resources Folder

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