Former longtime Univision anchor María Elena Salinas revealed on Tuesday evening that many Latinos are buying the arguments President Donald Trump is making about illegal immigration.
Salinas, whom the New York Times once described as the “voice of Hispanic America,” told CNN host Don Lemon after Trump’s Tuesday evening Oval Office address that she is saddened that Latinos “are buying some of these arguments against undocumented immigrants” that Trump has been making.
“And it’s very sad to see that our own people, who are immigrants themselves, are attacking these immigrants that are trying to come in, knowing themselves how difficult the situation is in a lot of these Latin American countries,” she continued. “And, you know, they’re buying it, and some people, just like some other Trump supporters, are saying, well, you know, so what if he tells lies, as long as we have lower unemployment among the Latino community.”
In his Oval Office address, Trump specifically mentioned that illegal immigration hurts African-Americans and Hispanic Americans.
“It strains public resources and drives down jobs and wages,” Trump said of illegal immigration. “Among those hardest hit are African-Americans and Hispanic Americans.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump, in addition to making the economic case for fewer illegal immigrants, also explicitly pointed out that the media often ignore Latino families who have been victimized by illegal immigrant crimes.
Trump ended up shocking the political and media establishments by doing better among Hispanic voters than Mitt Romney did four years before. And though the media have tried to vilify Trump as a “racist” who hates brown people, Trump’s support among Latinos has remained steady.
A December Associated Press report pointed out “the GOP’s position among Hispanics has not weakened during the Trump administration, despite the president’s rhetoric against immigrants and the party’s shift to the right on immigration.”
“Though Latino voters are a key part of the Democratic coalition, there is a larger bloc of reliable Republican Latinos than many think,” the Associated Press explained.
AP’s VoteCast data from the 2018 midterm elections reportedly found that “ 32 percent of Latinos voted for Republicans” while other midterm election surveys “also found roughly one-third of Latinos supporting the GOP.”
The Associated Press noted that “the stability of Republicans’ share of the Latino vote frustrates Democrats, who say actions like Trump’s family separation policy and his demonization of an immigrant caravan should drive Latinos out of the GOP.”
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