José Angel Gutiérrez ● Is Pew Hispanic Center Data Reliable? ● Our Voices/Nuestras Voces

Is Pew Hispanic Center Data Reliable?

José Angel Gutiérrez

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A couple of days ago Pew Hispanic Center reported, as it regularly does, on data based on their polling of Latino and Hispanic eligible voters. They use both terms interchangeably. I was astounded to read that a majority of Latino voters continue to approve of Trump TACO the Dumbo’s job performance. In 2024, Kamala Harris, the Democrat, got 51% of the national Hispanic vote while Trump TACO the Dumbo got 46%. Usually, the Republican candidate will get from 37% to 46% of the Hispanic vote. There are many Republican Hispanics among us, to be sure, especially among those who are part of the Border Patrol. That is the only agency that has a majority of Latinos among its members. Why? Because the pay is great. Year one pay for a new recruit with a high school diploma is from $64 to $85K depending where they get assigned. By year 3, they can earn $85K to $101K and with the signing bonus paid after some service adds another $30K to the annual salary. If they are lucky and get sent to San Diego or San Francisco in California the pay is $145K. Counties along the US Mexico border where most Hispanic BP’s are stationed are the ones voting Republican because the entire extended family supports their relative earing that kind of money to hunt someone else’s relatives coming across the border. ,but So is this Pew Hispanic data reliable?.

As of May 15th, Pew Hispanic reported that Hispanic voter approval of Trump TACO the Dumbo’s job performance had dropped to 66%. That is still too thigh in my estimation. But then, Hispanic or Latino are very broad pan-ethnic terms. That is because of the right-wing Cubans, Nicaraguans, Dominicans, Chileans, and other such naturalized citizens among us. Mexican origin people are the overwhelming number of those counted as Hispanic or Latino. We are the super majority of all the others combined. The Mexican origin voter usually votes straight Democratic Party. And, the Hispanic voter is aggregated mostly in California at 33%, Texas with 32%, then Arizona, Nevada, and Florida in the 20%’s. Colorado, New Jersey, and New York come in at 17%, 16% and 15%, respectively. Maybe the Pew Hispanic Center does not include in its number of persons to poll enough of us of Mexican origin or there are many Hispanic Border Patrol members included. We will soon see some trend among Hispanic voters in the Primaries going on now across the country and for sure, real numbers after the General Election in November. Those voting are a better statistic than those who say they will vote one way or another.

Another report from Pew Hispanic that made me wonder on the efficacy of their polling was on measuring discrimination by Whites on other groups. That report from May 20, 2025, reported the illegal immigrants of all kinds faced the most discrimination from Whites at 82%. Next came the transgender group facing discrimination at the rate of 77%; Black and Muslim people tied at 74%; and Jews and Hispanic tied at 72%. I have serious reservations about this statistic. First, being Jewish is a religion not an ethnicity or race. Most Jews are not discernible unless they say they are Jewish; you see a men wearing that little cap, the yarmulke (Yiddish) or kippah (Hebrew); long braids; at a religious service for Jews; and, you are in Israel. Women are harder to identify as being Jewish. There are not many Jews in the world. Some 15 million total with 7 million in Israel and 6 million in the US. Second, our Spanish surnames give everyone a clue we are part of the Hispanic milieu. Our accents if we are not English proficient is another clue we are not Jewish, Black or White.

What is the history of the Pew Hispanic Center? Why them and not NALEO or Unidos US or LULAC or the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce doing polls and reporting on us? Back in 1990, the Times Mirror Company established the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press to do polling. In 1993, the Pew Charitable Trusts (1948) became the main financial donor of this polling group on politics and major policy issues. The Trust changed the name to Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The Trust began adding components that soon became independent entities such as Project for Excellence in Journalism (1997); Pew Internet & American Life Project (1999); and three more in 2001; The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, the Pew Global Attitudes Project and Pew Hispanic Center. The entire operation was physically moved to Washington, D.C. and joined the US Census Bureau in sharing data in another new project, Pew Social & Demographic Trends (2005). All of these projects are non-partisan, non-profitable, educational endeavors. The Pew Hispanic Center began an annual National Survey of Latinos in early 2000 which became the backbone of this organization.

Early on Mark Hugo Lopez, a young Chicano assistant professor at the University of Maryland, who was born in Los Angeles, California became the Director of Race and Ethnicity Research at the Pew Research Center. He was soon made head of the Pew Hispanic Center. At times he is referred to as the Associate Director of the Center while the director is Michael Dimock. Lopez earned a bachelor’s degree from UC-Berkely and a PhD from Princeton in Economics. He knows his stuff but I still question some of the data base interviewees and conflated data for totally different groups like the case of Jews and Hispanics being discriminated at the same rate of 72%.