Donald Trump’s fiery immigration rhetoric and his unveiling of a tough ten-point agenda in Phoenix on Wednesday may have enthused his hardcore Republican base no end, but he is up against a fierce Hispanic backlash that could mar his presidential bid.
Without a fair amount of support from the burgeoning Hispanic community that happens to be America’s largest ethnic minority, Trump’s White House campaign could simply unravel — just as it happened to Mitt Romney in the 2012 race against President Barack Obama.
At least two members of Trump’s recently-constituted Hispanic Advisory Council quit the panel in a huff and two others publicly attacked his immigration proposals, terming them “awful” and “disappointing”. CBS News reported that as many as 15 of 24 members of the panel had either resigned or were planning to.
“I gave Donald Trump a plan that would improve border security, remove hardened criminal aliens and most importantly give work authority to the millions of honest, hardworking immigrants in the US,” Texas attorney Jacob Monty, a key member of the panel, wrote on Facebook, adding, “He rejected that tonight and so I must reject him.”
Another member, Ramiro Pena, a pastor, also pulled out, commenting, “I am so sorry but I believe Trump lost the election tonight.” The panel itself seemed to be “simply for optics”, he said, adding, “I do not have the time or energy for a scam.”
“I think he’s done for with the Hispanic community. He’s never going to see the White House if he doesn’t get a significant portion of the Hispanic vote,” said US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Javier Palamarez.
In his Phoenix address, Trump not only outlined his plan for deportation of some two million criminal aliens, but also made it clear that all 11 million illegal immigrants would have to go back to their respective countries and seek re-entry to the US through the legal immigration route. The bulk of these illegal immigrants are Hispanics from Mexico.
Although Trump did signal that his immediate priority as President would be to get rid of the criminal aliens and begin work on the wall, his refusal to provide any path to legalization to the rest within the US itself has disappointed some key members of his panel and angered the Hispanic community as a whole.
A poll released in July showed that only 19 per cent of Hispanic voters support Trump — even lower than the 27 per cent who backed Romney in 2012. With African-Americans supporting his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton virtually en bloc, Trump was widely expected to court more Hispanics with a softer immigration pitch, but he apparently abandoned the plan in order to keep his predominantly white voters’ base intact.
A Washington Post analysis estimated that at least 5 million to as many as 6.5 million illegal immigrants could be targeted under the deportation priorities outlined by Trump. While Trump himself pegged the target at two million criminal aliens, the Post analysis has also taken into account his other listed priority of removing all those who have become illegal by overstaying their visas.