CNN went to the U.S.-Mexico border and actually found–and interviewed–Latinos who support President Donald Trump and his border wall.
On Monday’s Erin Burnett OutFront, CNN’s Miguel Marquez noted that 34% of Latinos approved of Trump in a recent CNN poll. He said, as a puzzled Erin Burnett looked on, that though a majority of Latinos disapprove of Trump, there are plenty who live along the U.S.-Mexico border who support Trump, believe that there is a “national emergency” at the border, and would like to see the size of the border wall “doubled” or “tripled.”
Rolando Rodriguez, who lives a mile from the border in McAllen, Texas, said he wants a 2,600-mile border wall that is “longer and taller.”
When asked how much taller he wants the border wall to be, Rodriguez replied, “twice as much at least.”
Rodriguez, who said he supports Trump because of religious issues and “border politics,” added that he believes that the border wall will be a barrier for the “bad people” and not the “good people.”
CNN also found Mayra Gutierrez, who is in the process of getting her U.S. citizenship so she can vote for Trump. She said she supports Trump because of abortion, the economy, and immigration.
“We do have a lot problems here with immigration, and I do support his stance for the wall,” Gutierrez told CNN.
Joacim Hernandez, the president of the Hidalgo County Young Republicans, told the outlet that the last time Trump visited the area, there were a lot of Latinos “that were out there supporting him.”
Marquez’s interviews were consistent with what former longtime Univision anchor María Elena Salinas told CNN in January about Trump’s appeal among a significant number of Latinos. Salinas implied that Trump could have more support among Latinos than conventional wisdom and even polling suggests.
The legendary Spanish-language anchor whom the New York Times once described as the “voice of Hispanic America,” as Breitbart News noted, revealed that she was saddened that many 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,” Salinas said then. “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.”
Trump, who got more support among Latinos in 2016 than Mitt Romney did in 2012 when Trump received 29% of the Latino vote, has often pointed out that illegal immigration hurts Latino workers and illegal immigrant criminals victimize Hispanics who are in the country legally.
In the 2018 midterm elections, AP’s VoteCast data, exit polls, and other surveys found that Republicans received about a third of the Latino vote even though the mainstream media for two years painted Trump as an anti-Latino “racist.”
Marquez said that though a majority of Latinos disapprove of Trump and his border politics, pro-Trump Latinos believe there is enough support among the community to get Trump re-elected in 2020.
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