Raid footage threatens Latino realignment to GOP

This opinion piece was written by Giovanni Triana

I am a young, conservative Latino business owner. I was born in Mexico and spent the first five years of my life there before my parents brought me to Charlotte, North Carolina, where I was raised. I am a dual citizen, a proud American, and I voted for Trump — twice.

My mother, a legal immigrant who waited nearly 10 years for citizenship, always said America offers a hand up, not a handout. She taught me that this country doesn’t owe us anything, but it does offer the opportunity to chase the American Dream. Integrity, hard work, and faith in God were non-negotiable.

After my parents divorced, my single mother worked multiple jobs so we never felt poor. Through grit, faith, and opportunity, she climbed the corporate ladder from call-center rep to department head managing public retirement accounts. That journey carried us from crime-ridden apartments in East Charlotte to middle-class stability in the suburbs. Today she is a loyal Republican and the proudest American I know. She is the reason I love this country, own a business, and became a conservative.

That is my story. It is also the story of millions of Latino families — documented and undocumented — who want nothing more than the chance to climb the same ladder my family did.

And for years, that story was the Republican Party’s best advertisement to Latino voters. In 2024, it worked better than anyone imagined: Trump carried roughly 48% of Hispanics nationwide, flipped the Rio Grande Valley red for the first time since Reconstruction, and won Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Nevada because working-class Latinos voted on inflation, crime, schools, and family values.

Today, Republicans have the chance to embrace Latinos with respect and fairness. If they do, Latinos — like my mother — will be loyal to the party that stands for both the rule of law andhuman dignity.

But one week of footage on Telemundo and Univision did what four years of progressive open-border policies never could. In just two weeks of sweeping CBP/ICE raids, Republicans unraveled the greatest demographic realignment in modern politics: the 2024 Latino shift that delivered Texas, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and the White House.

The raids aren’t the core problem. The optics and execution are. And the numbers don’t lie.

Early 2025 municipal, school-board, and special-election exit polls in heavily Hispanic counties already show 25-40-point swings back toward Democrats — places that had been trending red for a decade. If this continues, the math is brutal: Texas is blue by 2032, Arizona and Nevada gone for a generation, and the conservative majority collapses.

This isn’t speculation. These are the vote totals since the Charlotte (and other) raids looped across Spanish-language media:

Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, which swung massive margins for Trump in 2024 (Zapata +28, Starr +31), saw Latino turnout collapse — and those who did vote swung 30-38 points left in November 2025.
Arizona’s Pinal and Yuma counties, decisive 2024 pickups, flipped school boards and city councils blue this month.
Florida’s Osceola County, the heart of the Puerto Rican I-4 corridor, delivered Trump his biggest 2024 margin; 2025 turnout cratered, and the shift left was the largest in the state.
New Jersey’s Hudson and Passaic counties — Cuban and Dominican communities trending right for years — snapped back left once raid footage dominated Telemundo.
Nevada’s Clark County Latino vote went from +19 for Trump in 2024 to nearly even in 2025.
If this holds, Texas turns purple by 2028 and blue by 2032. Arizona and Nevada become Democratic strongholds. The new GOP House and Senate majorities vanish by the 2030s.

Latinos are 19% of the population and rising — overwhelmingly Christian, culturally conservative, above-replacement fertility, and aligned with GOP values on life, family, marriage, education, faith, and work ethic. We are the only growing demographic that naturally shares the Republican worldview. Lose us, and the conservative era ends.

We’ve seen the right path before. Ronald Reagan secured the border, ended catch-and-release, mandated e-verify, and still offered earned legal status to long-term, non-criminal residents who learned English, paid taxes, and embraced American principles.

Because of that balance, Reagan earned 40-45% of the Latino vote. The GOP just hit roughly 48% in 2024 by talking about inflation, crime, and family. It can hit 55% — permanently — if they stop handing Democrats the only weapon that still works against us.

A winning Republican strategy in 2026 and beyond requires four non-negotiables:

Unapologetic prioritization. Focus 95% of enforcement on violent criminals, gang members, and recent arrivals. Make every MS-13 deportation front-page news. The optics flip overnight. Sheriffs must honor every ICE detainer for violent offenders. Magistrates must end catch-and-release for dangerous criminals.
Total transparency. Out-organize the left on the ground. Pair every enforcement action with bilingual town halls led by conservative Latino pastors, business owners, and officials. Explain in Spanish and English exactly who is being targeted and why. Flood communities with truth so activist cameras can’t distort it.
Deliver real economic relief. Fast-track affordable housing, expand school choice, and cut the regulatory barriers that stop new businesses and homes from being built.
These are not compromises. They are conservative commitments to strength, dignity, and victory. They reflect the tough-but-fair rule-of-law approach that wins elections. It’s what Reagan did. It’s what Latino voters responded to. And it permanently removes the left’s favorite attack line: “Republicans hate brown people.”

Keep running 2025 the way last week’s raids were handled — broad sweeps with no community engagement — and the Latino vote walks. Texas follows. And the conservative majority dies.

I’m living the American Dream because this country welcomed my family legally and let us earn our place. Millions of Christian, pro-life, pro-family Latinos want the same thing. Give us secure borders, safe streets, and respect, and we will deliver conservative majorities for a generation.

But if you don’t, you will lose us — and the country — for a generation.

 Giovanni Triana is a Charlotte-based entrepreneur with a background in public policy, civic leadership, and grassroots advocacy. He began his work in politics as president of the Turning Point USA chapter at East Carolina University and has since worked at ALEC and in Sen. Thom Tillis' office.