Massive raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in South Texas are undermining support for Donald Trump among some Latino voters, including residents who backed him in 2024 and are now openly expressing their regret, according to a CBS News report published this weekend.
Benny Melendez, owner of a small construction business in McAllen, is one of the most representative cases. He voted for Biden in 2020 and for Trump in 2024, and today he regrets both decisions. To protect his immigrant workers, he even went so far as to install fences at his worksites to force ICE agents to present judicial warrants before entering his properties.
"If I don't install fences, ICE will come onto my property and take my workers," Melendez explained to CBS News.
Las operaciones de ICE y su impacto en comunidades latinas siguen siendo un tema en constante evolución. Mantente al día con toda la información en nuestra sección de
The impact on his business is tangible: building a house, a task that used to take four months, now takes an entire year due to the labor shortage. "We are blessed to have two workers today," he said.
His frustration with the political system goes beyond one party: "I regret voting for Biden. Now I regret voting for Trump. What other options do we have? Neither party works for us."
Jessica Vuittonet, owner of a café in San Benito —about 45 minutes from McAllen—, also voted for Trump, primarily motivated by her religious beliefs. Today she acknowledges that she was wrong. "I knew he was going to start deporting people, but not innocent people, not hard-working people," she stated.
The Republican mayor of McAllen, Javier Villalobos, warned that his own party risks losing the gains made among border Latinos in 2024. He labeled ICE operations as the number one issue among his voters and described images of masked agents pulling people from vehicles as something that "is not a good image."
The figures support this discontent. A CBS News poll conducted in Texas between October 8 and 16, 2026, revealed that only 34% of Latino voters approved of Trump's administration, eleven points lower than his approval rating among the Texas electorate as a whole. Nationally, nearly 60% of Latinos surveyed felt that the administration has deported more people than they expected. A late September poll by NBC News and Telemundo rated Latino approval at just 27%, with 69% rejecting his immigration policy.
The phenomenon is not limited to Texas. A Cuban deported to Africa who supported Trump in 2024 recently urged the Latino vote to “punish” the president in the midterms. Another businessman from Miami-Dade who also voted for Trump lamented the deportation of his Cuban partner after nearly 25 years in the country.
This discontent arises at a pivotal electoral moment. In Texas's 15th congressional district—home to between 75% and 82% Hispanic population and won by Trump by 18 points in 2024—Tejano singer Bobby Pulido (Democrat) leads the polls against Republican Monica De La Cruz with 51% to 44%, according to a survey from October 21. The Senate race between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton is nearly tied.
From the White House, the border czar Tom Homan dismissed any electoral concerns: "I particularly don't care about the midterm elections. My job is to keep that border secure and enforce immigration law."
The midterm elections are scheduled for November 3, 2026, and the Democrats are hopeful that discontent among border Latinos will allow them to regain ground in Congress.
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