At War With Assimilation
All was good with the Latino shift to the right ‘til it wasn’t.
The United States is at war with Latino assimilation in America. Latinos, for the most part, have found a better life since arriving in the U.S., so long as they remained nameless and faceless, worked hard, and demonstrated an insatiable appetite for American-style consumerism.
They felt safe from the rabid anti-Mexican bluster of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller because they were on the “assimilation” track and part of the “good people” exception Trump talked about during the speech announcing his 2016 Presidential campaign. As part of the “good people,” “good Latinos” never thought of themselves as potential targets of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. That was for traffickers, rapists, gang-affiliated domestic terrorists, the real “bad hombres.”
But as the enforcement began to be felt in Los Angeles - the second largest “Mexican” city in the world, an uneasiness began to chill down the spines of innocent “good Latinos” who were busy assimilating and building community across Los Angeles.
The actions of the administration hide behind the lie that Latinos are scamming the largess of the American social safety net and taking advantage of working-class whites by supposedly taking jobs that “real” Americans could be doing. Many Latinos, secure in their sense that they are now fully American, think that there is some truth to this notion and have come to think that maybe it is time to stem the flow of migration from Mexico, as well as Central and South America.
A more nuanced, albeit unfounded, fear expressed by far-right Latinos is that the migrants of today are not the same as when they came across the border. Immigrants today, the reasoning goes, tend to cling more to remaining Latino as their defining identity, speaking Spanish, devoted to Catholicism, keeping to themselves, and generally not integrating into the mainstream of American life. These beliefs feed the false stereotype that Latinos don’t assimilate and are content with remaining the “other” in a society focused on “America First.” And that is causing what the overall MAGA right believes is the “browning of America” or “the great replacement.”
Latino influence of mainstream tastes can be found in every household across the nation. Salsa is now the most used condiment in the U.S. Tortillas have replaced white bread at the dinner table, street tacos instead of hamburgers replacing fast food urges, tequila instead of Jack Daniels. The list of “replacements” goes on and on.
Politically, Latinos have become the determining demographic in elections as we fight for the future of America. Latinos made up 14.7% of eligible voters in 2024 of whom 67% are U.S. Citizens by birth. The change since 9-11 has been dramatic! Both parties have been trying to put their finger on the changes that are occurring but so far they have missed the point. In reality, bread and butter issues are crowding out the outmoded beliefs that Latinos only care about immigration.
The “browning” of America is a demographic imperative. Younger Americans’ diets and tastes are shifting away from the American homogeneity that has been in place since the end of World War II. Rapid aging, declining fertility rates and diversity of the population are driving that change … a powerful force that no amount of nostalgia and pining for the past can alter.
Within this dynamic, assimilation patterns begin to emerge. What we are experiencing in the U.S. is Latino-style assimilation that looks like mainstream all-American in accordance with cultural norms but with a Latino flare.
In the 2024 election there appeared to be a big shift in Latino votes away from the blue progressive policies of the Democratic Party. Latinos sided in greater numbers with the anger and frustration of Donald Trump and the MAGA right’s clamoring for a reckoning and dismantling of the big government state. The Latino move rightward ironically gave tacit permission to the administration’s crackdown on the “browning” of America.
What seems to have surprised people the most is that immigration reform no longer registers as the hot-button “issue” for mainstream Latinos. Consumer prices, access to healthcare and raising wages by securing the border appeared to be the main drivers of the Latino shift to Trump.
The issues in 2024 were the same for Latinos as they were for the rust-belt factory workers displaced by run-away manufacturing of the 90’s. Latinos eagerly joined in the cry for economic relief of the silent majority of working class Americans that feel “left behind” and marginalized in the new technology economy. Trumpism felt like a revolution and Latinos jumped on the MAGA bandwagon like other Americans, as their cries began to feel seen and heard.
This assimilative factor was not on the radar for traditional Democratic and Republican campaigning and outreach to Latinos. Noted Latino demographer and political consultant Mike Madrid began sifting through data to help find, verify, and explain the cause of the shift. He identified trends that Latinos had the same gripes and needs as those who eschewed the doctrines of both parties in favor of a homegrown movement they found in the nascent doctrines of “MAGA,” which claims to be dedicated to providing relief and protection to the beleaguered working class of America.
Madrid’s finding disputes the idea of a shift from mainstream “Democrat” to mainstream “Republican.” Instead, it was more a recognition that Latinos do not belong to either party. and do not adhere to traditional labels. Disdaining both traditional Democrats and Republicans who see them as a one-issue constituency, they were drawn to the populist rhetoric of the MAGA insurgency.
Additionally, there was the appeal of the male-centric machismo of the tribalism and nihilistic extremism that now dominates the MAGA movement and which tolerates racism and jingoism as part of a strategy to restore an America that faded long ago but that Trump claims he and only he can revive.
Which brings me to another observation concerning Latino assimilation: What are Latinos actually assimilating into then? A year-plus into Trump’s second term, we are seeing a major swing back from Trump policies and MAGA extremism that helped propel the great Latino shift of 2024. This is mainly due to the cruelty, sheer callousness, and complete lack of empathy toward Latinos in Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Also, Latinos, like everyone else, feel the pain of inflation and diminishing opportunity. Prices keep rising and wages remain stagnant. Trump’s tariffs are costing the average family more than $1,700 a year. Popular healthcare subsidies under Obamacare that blue collar working people across the US embraced have been rolled back in favor of subsidizing tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Families are once again one catastrophic health event away from financial ruin. None of this squares with what Latinos believe is the American Dream.
That doesn’t mean Latinos are flocking back to the Democrats. Latinos have to wonder how ICE and Homeland Security were granted sweeping powers with impunity to circumvent the rule of law and constitutional protections in place since our founding. Both Republicans and Democrats had a hand in creating DHS and ICE and removing legal and judicial accountability of ICE from the Justice Department to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS is an agency with extraordinary powers that supersede constitutional safeguards if someone is believed to be a domestic threat to national security.
ICE was primarily created to prevent domestic terrorism from taking hold on U.S. soil after the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11. It was not designed to grab-up and manhandle, and detain incommunicado for months in horrible prisons, household caregivers, grannies and gardeners, fruteros and street taco vendors as threats to national security.
MAGA and Trump successfully courted Latinos because there was receptiveness primarily among U.S. born Latinos to “dialing it back” to simpler times. A time when everyone minded their own business, worked hard, bought a house, raised a family and retired. This was the core labor movement messaging that many working class Latinos fashioned their life and goals around. Republicans uncovered this receptiveness by actually listening to folks as they went door to door in the barrios of South Texas and the barrios and suburbs where Latinos are concentrated across Southeast and Southwestern states.
The MAGA forces then astutely crafted a message appealing to those Latino assimilative tendencies that synced to their vision of the future. This was done as a result of listening intentionally to Latinos who felt heard for the first time in a long time.
Immediately upon taking office again, the Trump administration, headed by anti-Mexican zealot Stephen Miller, began turning the extra-legal power and authority of DHS and ICE loose against Latinos, even those who supported Trump.
Now a sitting president is building concentration camps across the United States so that he can conduct a mass removal of brown-skinned people, including the arrest, detention and removal of birthright citizenship Latinos and “other” undesirables. That wasn’t the outcome Latinos expected when they supported MAGA and Trump in 2024.
But it is truly ironic that the Trump administration is attacking Latinos as “un-American” and a scourge undermining American values at a time when Latinos are assimilating at higher rates than ever, while they are actively engaged in politics and community building.
When we restore the American Dream, it will be with a Latino flair … a prologue nobody saw coming.