Activists in swing Michigan county are alarmed by Hispanic voters backing Trump despite his anti-immigrant rhetoric
Activists in swing Michigan county are alarmed by Hispanic voters backing Trump despite his anti-immigrant rhetoric
Dan Soza has seen the harsh realities of Donald Trump's immigration policies up close and so he is alarmed that many Latino voters in Saginaw, Michigan, do not take seriously the former US president's threats of mass deportations.
As a child welfare officer in Saginaw, Soza places young unaccompanied refugees in foster families and watched the Trump administration's separation of children from their parents at the Mexican border in 2018 with alarm. He said the cruelty of that policy, and the former president's threats against refugees legally in the US, should serve as a warning that Trump might do what he says.
"A lot of people who are Latino or Hispanic -- whether it be in Saginaw, Michigan, or in the country -- when they hear him say those things, they don't think he's talking about them," said Soza.
"What really worries me is that people don't remember their history. This has happened before. We've seen mass deportations before and when it happened American citizens were deported."
How can Latinos not realize how much Trump hates them? It's his main topic, how the dirty immigrants are pouring across the border bringing crime and taking American jobs. He and his cronies say it over and over with every speech.
Because they got there legally, he's not talking about them. Except they don't realise that they're voting for a world where border patrol will still harass them based on how they look.
And by their names and associations in a database somewhere. I bet there are even some cowards that think voting for him will somehow save them. (Spoiler: It won't, and he's laughing at these fools helping exterminate them.)
Their Spanish channels are ridiculously overrun with right wing propaganda. My wife is Venezuelan, and it's crazy the crap her parents believe. And they are sweet, non-hateful people. But they live in a little bubble where all the news fed to them is through a right wing filter, and they don't believe it because it's not like they're watching Fox News or something.
My goddamn Guatamalan immigrant coworker yesterday: "Kamala ruined this country, she let in all the illegals and they're ruining everything. She did nothing to stop them!"
That’s the key. Your coworker isn’t an illegal. They arrived the legit way (in theory). So, it’s those other dirty people who are ruining the country. Not the “immigrants”, but the illegals.
So, of course Trump wouldn’t deport them, right? The GOP fully appreciates the difference between a Guatemalan who came here and has a valid Green Card versus a Mexican who crossed a river, right? The people who refer to all of Latin America as “Mexican countries” wouldn’t just round up anyone too brown and revoke their status?
My in-laws came over the border illegally. They busted their ass and are now legal.
They are voting for Trump, again, BECAUSE OF THE ILLEGALS COMING INTO THE COUNTRY.
I shit you not, they love to tell the story of their struggle leaving a war-torn country to get here. Yet, they can't comprehend actually fixing immigration vs. just build a wall. Fuck you got mine.
I don't understand how this can be an interpretation when trump and vance made clear they are indifferent if the immigrants are legal and working. They've pushed the point the springfield immigrant community shouldn't be here, shouldn't be supported, even if they came legally - it's the wrong kind of legal. There's nothing directing which 'legals' are good in their policy.
I tried to explain to him that a citizen is a citizen, their "remigration" plan to "denaturalize" a citizen could be applied to anyone. but naturally then he went on about the other favorite go to for the Reich wing "she wants to take all our guns!"
I posted an article a few days ago about a guy who came to the U.S. illegally, got citizenship under Obama, was and complaining to Trump about how he can't find workers for his restaurant while praising him and doing the full MAGA thing.
Hell, this history was like 4 years ago when he was president and deporting Hispanic immigrants and still hasn't shut up about his border wall or being harsh immigrants. It isn't ancient history or anything.
Do they think that his recent focus on Haitian immigrants means he likes Latino immigrants now?
I heard this years ago and it stuck in my brain: Everyone wants to be the last immigrant.
Turns out latinos can be just as short-sighted and selfish as everyone else, because there is no actual difference between humans that look different, despite the hundreds of years of propaganda to the contrary.
Fuck these ladder snatching pricks. These "I got mine so fuck you" mother fuckers. Every single one of them.
Most Americans today are 4th generation at best. Fuck you if you were halfway decent cared about your dumbass ancestry.com results more then helping the billionaire capitalist fucking pig that made them available to you, the maybe you'd see that these FUCKS raped your ancestors and gaslit you into believing if you pay your taxes you can be one of them. Latinos, you'll always be brown.
Yup and Cubans do this especially in South Florida. The funniest part is when all the cheap labor started to leave the state and all the old condo buildings they had their grandparents in are being kicked out due to special assessments. They now want the government to step in and prevent those special assessments or get them reduced so they can stay on fixed income.
I would have more empathy if only they had it for others that were not them. Part of the reason why Obama got rid of wet foot dry foot policy for them.
Man, it's been like that in Miami for decades. A super weird dynamic of old guard Cubans clinging to an incredibly outdated view of world politics, and their younger, deeply Capitalist generations who are consumed with enriching themselves.
I think the problem is they came from a place where ladder snatching was the default. Their ancestors just a couple generations ago and probably their relatives at home are still dealing with the same levels of open corruption that we're just seeing here. They were taught and raised to snatch the ladders up. They're ready to play the game for all it's worth because they've been taught They need to play the game and how to play the game.
The article actually says the Catholicism in Latinos is decreasing but Evangelical Christianity is rising. If that's the case then Evangelical Christianity seems to be more of the cause
We've seen mass deportations before and when it happened American citizens were deported."
This is the terrifying reality that these fools don’t realize. Trump’s Schutzstaffel will not care about your legal status. You could be a fourth generation citizen but if your name is even vaguely Hispanic sounding you will not be spared when they start rounding people up. You will be guilty until proven innocent. It’s a serious mistake not to take MAGA at their word when they promise mass deportations.
He’s absolutely talking about all of us, no matter what our citizenship status is. That lady and all those who support him will be the first ones to get shipped the fuck outta here because they already have their addresses and phone numbers. There’s a special place in hell for people that sell out their own kind.
My wife should be ok, because she's white! I, otoh, was born in the NY (or, according to Southerners "no, where are you from, REALLY?!?!") so I'm fucked.
I'm Jewish, my daughter is Jewish and queer, and my wife is a librarian, who they want to be able to imprison for lending out the "wrong" books to children.
Basically we're all fucked. I'm glad I have dual citizenship with the UK. Getting my wife over is going to be a problem though.
Kind of a clickbait headline but there are some interesting parts in the text... It's worth keeping these in mind when doing election outreach in the US.
"... I feel like we, as Latinos, are traditionally conservative.”
"traditionally conservative" is a tautology, and this statement is a bit exaggerated, but Latinos do often have strong values associated with family, religion, work, and other things that conservatives try to "own".
Paschall said that if there is racism, it comes from white liberals who tell her that, as a Latina, she should not support Trump. She describes that view as “so deep-rooted that they don’t even realise they’re being racist”.
I disagree with Paschall's assertion. However, while white liberals call Republicans "weird", those same white liberals often come across as weird to people who don't share their ideas. DISCLAIMER: I think Republicans are weird and agree with white liberals more often than not. I'm just describing some of the attitudes I see here in my battleground state, so we can communicate better during voter outreach. END DISCLAIMER
There are other factors at play. The proportion of Mexicans crossing the border to work without visas has dropped sharply in recent years with much larger numbers of people now coming from Central and South America as refugees. They sometimes face hostility from more established Latino communities, about 60% of which are of Mexican ancestry.
There's a tendency to think of Latinos as some monolithic people, but this paragraph describes one way that isn't true. Even if you only consider those with the right to vote, there's a tremendous difference between say a third-generation Cuban-American, a recent Central American naturalized citizen in Nevada, a second-generation Puerto Rican in Georgia, and a Tejano whose family has lived here for hundreds of years. Each of them have a wide variety of priorities and opinions, it's not all about immigration. And if they vote for Trump it's not just that they're brainwashed or ignorant, a lot of times they're holding their nose in the same way a lot of people on the left are holding their nose to vote for Kamala. (Not me! I think she's all right! In fact I just recently signed up to help her campaign, I hope it's not too late...)
I'm a dual citizen. I already renewed my EU passport and I'm preparing to move my family out of the US by the end of the year. If Harris wins, I'll consider staying but will likely still move. Seems like half the people around me are ok with letting Trump back in after all we've already gone through with him. Can't have my kids grow up in that environment.
Forget "they don't think he's talking about them." They actually really care about the border. Are they brain dead? Trump killed a bipartisan deal over the border for the sake of politics and they are rewarding this behavior. That's just plain stupidity.
Thank you to Dan Soza. It's always good to know there are people that care so deeply about protecting the vulnerable. The fact there are so many sane individuals out there, like Soza and fellow lemmings in this thread, pushing back against the delusion brings a comfort to my soul.