Picking up on a theme that Latino USA reported on earlier this year, CBSN (CBS News’ online news channel) spent an entire hour Thursday night talking about why some Latinos are supporting the presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Our own Julio Ricardo Varela, political editor for the Futuro Media Group and a frequent contributor to Latino USA, was part of a panel that discussed the CBSN report. The panel, hosted by CBS News’ Elaine Quijano, also included Ed O’Keefe of The Washington Post, CBSN political contributor Leslie Sanchez and Tony Castaneda, former Eagle Pass (TX) police chief.
The panel discussion covered several points, including Trump’s polling numbers with Latinos, and at one point Julio called for a more in-depth discussion about the immigration issue, saying that Trump’s position was rather “simplistic” and that the notion of an “invasion” from Mexico is divisive and inaccurate. He also added this:
I can spend an entire hour talking about how we got here [on the immigration issue]. And there’s a lot of policies from both Democrats and Republicans for the last 30 years that have gotten us to where we’ve gotten to. We also have a Deporter-in-Chief [President Obama] that people have said that… Barack Obama is actually doing a lot of things that the chief is saying. So the one thing that I will say about this is that Donald Trump is simplifying this message to a point that he’s insulting the intelligence of the American population. Because we can have a real, real discussion about immigration reform, but we have to have adults in the room.
For our report about Latino Trump supporters, listen to the following segment, produced earlier this year by Latino USA producer Julia Shu:
To me it is very hard to understand why some Latino/a support D. Trump. What they do not know yet is that for Trump anybody from Mexican origin, even those already born in the USA, continues being a “Mexican” who by definition goes against his plans. Just look at how he refers to Judge Curiel.
All these closet Latino celeb’s need to speak up in the media since the media keeps giving Trump the platform, it’s pretty sad that people in power to speak up don’t.