I am still amazed by people who support President Donald Trump and his administration, particularly Latinos. As a Latino myself, I see it as a betrayal of our roots, our culture, and all the people who have worked hard to lay the foundations of our community in the United States.
President Trump first came to office in January 2017 riding a wave of xenophobic rhetoric. He said he would deport immigrants and build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border (which he claimed Mexico would pay for). The funny thing is, when you’d tell Latinos that Trump’s comments and agenda were prejudiced and racist, they’d engage in whataboutism.
“Actually, President Obama deported more people during his administration,” they’d say, as if that justifies the matter entirely, or the inhumane way some of these people were treated.
According to a Pew Research Center survey, he’s increasingly found support in our community. Forty-eight percent of Latinos voted for Trump in 2024—up from 36% in 2020 and 28% in 2016.
I understand that people vote for candidates for different reasons, but I cannot understand how they believe undermining their own community is worthwhile. Our community takes care of each other and has a rich history of standing up for what’s right.
But to see some Latinos overlook the comments Trump and other republicans have made about us over the years, it seems as though they think trading freedom for “protection” is a worthwhile bet. The only problem is we all know Trump has a reputation for casting people aside when they no longer benefit him or cause him the slightest embarrassment.
Just look at some of the people who voted or otherwise backed Trump and the GOP, and then were caught up in federal immigration sweeps. Some of them were U.S. citizens detained by authorities, while others were asylum seekers whose applications were pending. Critics might say this is just karma paying these people a visit—“f-around and find out”—but I’d argue no one deserves to be humiliated in front of their family or forcibly taken away from them so indiscriminately.
The silver lining to all this, if there is one, is that Trump’s current approval rating among Latinos is at an all-time low. Maybe Latinos are starting to wake up to the fact that Trump and his allies truly only care about power, and that it doesn’t matter whether you did things the “right way”—this administration will toss you under the bus the moment it’s convenient.
Maybe they’ll realize that the only way to protect our community, is to stand up for our community no matter what. Maybe they’ll realize that our traditions and our culture and our values cannot and should not be so quickly exchanged for empty promises of prosperity and false hope of being “accepted.”
Then again, I could still be amazed by the time this article is published, which will be the day after Election Day. Maybe Latinos will continue the apparent trend of backing policies and people who really only care about their own interests, and not those of the community.
And maybe we’ll all find ourselves here again in another four years, wondering how it got so bad and asking when we’ll start standing up for each other.
I just hope by then we’ll still have something in this country that will allow us to do that.