DHaving seen firsthand the harsh realities of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, Souza is concerned that many Latino voters in Saginaw, Michigan, are not taking the former U.S. president’s threats of mass deportation seriously. are.
As a child welfare worker in Saginaw, Souza placed unaccompanied refugee youth in foster care and watched with alarm as the Trump administration separated children from their parents at the Mexican border in 2018. He said the brutality of that policy and the former president’s threats against refugees who are legal in the United States should serve as a warning that President Trump may relent.
“A lot of Latinos and Hispanics, whether it’s Saginaw, Michigan or rural areas, when they hear him, they don’t think he’s talking about them,” Souza said. said.
“What really worries me is that people don’t remember their history. This has happened before. We’ve seen mass deportations before. And when that happened, American citizens were also deported.”
Despite this, support for Trump is increasing among Latinos, who make up about 15% of the U.S. electorate. A recent New York Times poll in Siena found that nearly 1 in 10 Hispanic voters (those with Spanish-speaking roots) who supported Biden in 2020 backed Trump this year. indicated to vote.
Support for Democratic presidential candidates among Hispanic and Latino voters has been declining for years. Barack Obama received about 70% of the vote. Opinion polls show Harris’ approval rating is just 56%.
A Siena poll found Harris trailing among Hispanic voters on immigration, the economy and crime. Meanwhile, President Trump has strengthened his support among some Hispanic voters, even as his anti-immigrant rhetoric has become increasingly threatening.
Two-thirds said they thought President Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists, claimed they were “tainting our nation’s blood,” and threatened to invoke wartime powers to deport millions of people. I don’t feel that he’s talking about me.” More than 40% support President Trump’s promise to complete construction of the wall on the Mexican border and his deportation policies.
Andrea Pascal, a Republican who founded Latino for Trump in Saginaw County, is one of them. He said he was representing the large number of Hispanic voters in the battleground county, which Trump narrowly won in 2016 and which Joe Biden carried over to Democrats four years later by just 303 votes. .
“When I created the group, I woke up the next morning and there were 35 people who believed what I believed. They also felt shamed and talked about who they supported. I couldn’t do it,” she said. .
Why Saginaw, Michigan?
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In a very tight US election decided by a small number of voters in a few key battleground states, the Guardian investigates Saginaw, Michigan. The state is a swing state, and its voters will have a huge impact on the outcome of the battle between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Chris McGreal is on the ground in Saginaw in the run-up to the November election, researching issues that matter to voters of all political backgrounds.
Saginaw voters: What issues will decide U.S. elections?
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“I’m a conservative. I vote for Donald Trump. I’m an anomaly because I don’t hide that fact. I joined the Republican Party because I wanted to see myself represented not just in ethnicity but also in ideology.” I feel like we, as Latinos, are traditionally conservative.
Pascal, a customer success manager who ran for county commissioner earlier this year but lost in the August Republican primary, said Trump’s threats were only targeting illegal immigrants and that Trump’s more extreme statements He said it was just political rhetoric and should not be done. It makes Latinos feel fearful.
“The tone is sensationalism. The tone is to make people aware. He gets people to listen. Your ears are all up. You respond emotionally, and that That’s what it’s about,” she said.
“I’m not necessarily offended by those things. Number one, we love immigrants. I’m definitely pro-immigration, but I don’t care what color your skin is. , I don’t care where you’re from, if you come into this country illegally, it’s a problem for me and for many people who are immigrants, including many Latinos, believe me. Please believe that there is.”
But President Trump’s attacks are not limited to illegal aliens. Souza pointed out that the false claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating family pets was directed at people with permits to remain in the United States.
“Many of the immigrants that President Trump is attacking have a so-called legal presence. The Haitians that President Trump is attacking have temporary protection. I work with refugees. Haitians , I see the Guatemalans, the Nicaraguans, the Venezuelans. Honestly, when you look at that rhetoric, it’s so ignorant because they’re here legally. But what will happen to them if Mr. Trump comes back? I’m worried,” he said.
Still, Pascal continues to defend Trump’s claims about Haitians.
“I didn’t learn this from Donald Trump. In fact, I learned this from residents on TikTok saying, ‘This is what’s happening in my town.’ There is a serious problem with animals being eaten alive on our streets. “It’s not okay to ignore them because you’re afraid to say they’re from a certain country or have a certain skin color,” she said.
Pascal said if there is racism, it comes from white liberals saying she shouldn’t support Trump because she’s Latina. She describes that view as “so ingrained that people don’t even realize they’re racist.”
Latinos make up approximately 9% of Saginaw County’s population. Most of them are of Mexican descent, and their families came to the area in the first half of the 20th century, drawn by jobs in America’s once booming auto industry and other factories.
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Souza said that as generations are born in the United States, the connection to their ancestors’ experiences as immigrants fades or breaks. Additionally, parts of Saginaw, where once-bustling neighborhoods are dotted with abandoned and demolished homes, have experienced long-term economic decline, leaving many people in financial distress.
“If you compare immigration to the economy and health care, those issues are currently having a huge impact on the typical Latino. Obviously someone who is first generation has been here for a short period of time, and maybe they “We may have more at stake in the game, but overall it hasn’t affected us on the level that you might think, other than psychologically,” he said. Ta.
There are other factors as well. The proportion of Mexicans crossing the border to work without a visa has fallen sharply in recent years, and far more people now come from Central and South America as refugees. They may face hostility from the more established Latino community, about 60% of whom are of Mexican descent.
Shifts in religious allegiances may also explain some of the increase in support for Trump. Pascal left the Roman Catholic Church and moved to an evangelical congregation. she is not alone. The number of U.S. Latinos who identify as Catholic has declined from 67% to 43% since 2010. More than 20% say they are Protestant, and members of the evangelical church majority tend to support Trump.
But Pascal said Trump’s support is driven by the same issues that win him votes in other parts of the country.
“When Trump was president, gas prices were down and I could afford groceries. We were also tired of being told one thing and not getting what you said. “I do,” she said.
“People are voting for the differences we want. We don’t want the same old, same old. We want the same politicians in the same places, doing the same things, saying the same abuse.” I’m tired of getting the same zero results.”
But for some, immigration overshadows everything. Angel Gomez, a clinical therapist, said she fears what Trump’s re-election will mean for her family.
“I’m white, but I still have the fear that I might get caught up in it. I have family members who are in the country illegally, and not only do they harm my family by separating them. , I have a fear that it could harm me too,” he said.
“People say, ‘Oh, it’s not a real horror,’ but it’s happened twice in our history. It happened right under President Bush, and he had undocumented soldiers. He went to war for him, and when they came back he exiled them.
Gomez pointed to a Florida law that criminalizes the removal of illegal immigrants to the state since it was blocked by a federal court earlier this year. He said if the Trump administration passed such a law, it would make him a criminal for putting his family in his car on vacation.
Souza said he feels he and other Latinos are even more vulnerable because Democrats aren’t advocating for them enough. He accused some Democrats, including fellow party Senate candidate Elisa Slotkin of Michigan, of playing Trump’s game.
“She specifically said in her ad here in Michigan that she wants to make it harder for refugees to come here, which is really, really sad because this is the reality that the United States “The number of refugees who can come here per year is usually below that number,” he said.
“To be very honest with you, the Democratic Party didn’t inspire me to do any voter canvassing, outreach, phone banking, etc. because the Democratic Party has moved so far to the right in its stance on immigrants and refugees this election. This is because it has become Very disappointed. I’m starting to lose motivation. But on all of these subjects the alternatives are so much worse to me that I can never think of voting for them. ”
