By Felicia J. Persaud
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Sept. 19, 2025: Latino voters undoubtedly helped power Donald Trump back into the White House in 2024 – but now, many of those same voters may pay the highest price for his administration’s racist and xenophobic agenda – enabled by what I can only call the U.S.’ new banana court: The Supreme Court.
As a Pew Research Center study showed, Trump captured 48 percent of the Latino vote in 2024 — a stunning leap from the 36 percent he earned in 2020. Among Latino men, Trump actually beat Kamala Harris 54 to 44 percent — a 33-point swing in just four years. Hispanic naturalized citizens also shifted dramatically, jumping from 39 percent for Trump in 2020 to 51 percent in 2024.
Many Latino voters reportedly put the economy above all else, hoping Trump would deliver relief from high prices, jobs, and housing costs. Forty percent of Latinos said pocketbook issues were their top priority — nine points higher than the general electorate. Those numbers made them one of the key groups that turned out for Trump in November.
Fast track to June of this year. One of Trump’s most ardent Latino supporters, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, declared as immigration raids escalated and the military was deployed to Los Angeles: “The nation is watching, and now is the perfect time to pursue a lasting solution – one we’ve prayed for and desired for nearly a quarter-century.” It’s hard to imagine Rodriguez was praying for what came next.
The September 8tht Supreme Court Ruling
On September 8h, the Supreme Court handed Trump a major victory. In a 6–3 decision, the Court lifted a lower-court order that had blocked ICE agents from carrying out suspicion-less raids in Los Angeles. This decision essentially greenlights racial profiling. Federal agents now have broader authority to conduct raids based on how someone looks, the language they speak, or whether they have an accent.
The majority offered no explanation. Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent was chilling: the ruling makes “all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low-wage jobs… fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction.”
Fear Across Communities
Immigrant advocates are sounding the alarm. Murad Awawdeh of the New York Immigration Coalition said the ruling “normalizes unconstitutional policing practices” and will destabilize neighborhoods across the country.
Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen called the decision “un-American” and vowed to keep fighting Trump’s “out-of-control mass deportation efforts.” She warned that parents may fear taking their kids to school, workers may avoid their jobs, and people may even skip seeking medical care – all because of the risk of being detained.
The Political Irony
This is the bitter irony for Latino voters: their historic support for Trump helped him reclaim the presidency, but his administration is now empowered to target their neighborhoods, workplaces, and families.
Equis Research notes that about a third of Latinos who supported Trump are no longer committed to voting Republican in the midterms. If raids and racial profiling ramp up, that number could grow – potentially undoing the gains the GOP made with Latino voters in 2024. But as my granny would say: “Too late, too late shall be the cry.” And yes – “you were warned.”
The Bottom Line
Trump lied and promised economic revival for all – but many Latinos may now find themselves facing raids, deportations and jail instead of relief. The Supreme Court ruling should be a wake-up call: immigration enforcement built on racial profiling doesn’t just punish the undocumented. It punishes entire communities and ethnic groups.
Sadly, for all of us, these are some of the very communities that helped put the Hitler of this century back in office – and now, we are all paying the price.
Felicia J. Persaud is the founder and publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, the only daily newswire and digital platform dedicated exclusively to Caribbean Diaspora and Black immigrant news across the Americas.
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