– I agree Donald Trump, because he is on the side of the people. on the side of the American people. I am an immigrant myself. But I cannot support open borders.
That’s what an American nurse says Ariela Colon, 32. The opinion may not be surprising, but its author is: Colon came to the United States at the age of two with his mother from the Dominican Republic. As a young man he voted Democrat Barack Obama.
Republican presidential candidate Trump is known for his anti-immigrant views and for promising to build a wall on the Mexican border. Trump began his first election campaign in 2015 by calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists.
In the current election season, however, an increasing number of Latino voters in the United States have, like Colon, moved from a supporter of the Democrats to behind Trump – even before Trump’s assassination attempt and the president Joe Biden withdrawal.
Latinos are people with roots in Central America or South America, and they already make up about 20 percent of the US population. Since the race will probably be tight, their votes may decide the fall election.
Are immigrants not bothered by Trump’s anti-immigrant opinions?
– Racism doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t feed my kids, it doesn’t pay my bills, it doesn’t affect my life, Colon replies.
– In this situation, I am worried about the economy and what kind of future awaits my children.
Colon says he has been targeted by racism from other Latinos because he supports Trump.
The disaffected of the Latino zone
Colon and his mother Angie Chapman cook chicken, rice and beans Dominican style in mom’s kitchen in the small town of Hazleton, Pennsylvania. “If you make a mess, clean up”, reads on the kitchen wall.
Ariela Colon does the work as ordered: she mops the floor where her dog is Bronte drools in the heat of over 30 degrees.
These small towns in eastern Pennsylvania are called the “Latino Belt” in the elections. In old industrial cities like Hazleton, Allentown, and Reading, the number of Latinos has quickly risen to more than half of all residents. People move here from big cities because of lower living costs.
In Pennsylvania, a key swing state, just as many Latino voters supported Trump than Biden in the spring poll, which is worrying for Democrats. It will be difficult for them to win elections without Pennsylvania, and traditionally Democrats have been able to rely on minority support.
There are more than 600,000 Latinos in Pennsylvania who are eligible to vote. In the last election, the difference between the leading candidates was only 80,000 votes.
– During Trump, I paid 70-80 dollars a week for the family’s grocery shopping. Now I pay $120-$140 for them. It’s crazy, says Colon.
Dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden boils down to inflation. Although the US economy is doing well compared to Finland, prices have risen so much that many working people feel poor.
To get by, Colon works as a nurse and assistant in a local politician’s office. The children have been sent to relatives for the summer vacation, because Colon doesn’t have a summer vacation. The annual two weeks came to be used in the winter.
Mother Angie Chapman portions the chicken on the plates and stands next to the dining table to make sure it tastes good. He is an entrepreneur and his job is helping immigrants with taxes and immigration.
Chapman would not expel illegal immigrants from the country, but he thinks new ones should be left behind the wall. That’s why he also supports Trump. New immigrants compete with old ones for the same jobs, which reduces solidarity towards newcomers.
– America is full of people from all countries. Not just Spanish speakers, but Chinese, Haitians, everybody, Chapman says.
The tension between new and old immigrants is as old as the United States, a country founded by immigrants. The attitude towards new arrivals has also always varied depending on how well the US economy has been able to absorb the new workforce.
The right-wing’s hard line on immigration kept Latinos as the most loyal supporters of the Democrats for decades. The exception was the Cubans in Florida, who were staunch anti-communists because of their harsh experiences.
Although the majority of Latinos still support Democrats, the erosion of both Latino and black support is like a slow earthquake in American politics. It could force Democrats to rethink their message: a Jamaican-Indian vice president Horrible Harris ethnicity does not automatically get minorities behind him. Is economic success more important than identity for minorities these days?
Yes, answers one study from 2020. It explored why Latino voter support for Republicans did not collapse in the 2016 election because of Trump’s speeches, as the party had feared.
Trump’s support can be seen in Reading.
According to the study, the values of Latinos in the United States become more conservative the longer it has been since their own immigration. The collective immigrant identity is replaced by an individual American identity based on the pursuit of one’s own success.
For Latino voters, the economy, health care and education are more important issues in elections than immigration or the treatment of minorities.
In addition, many who entered the country legally under the Chapman and Colon laws oppose illegal immigration. According to the survey, more than a third of Latinos who exercised their right to vote would like to deport all illegal immigrants, the majority of whom are Latinos. There are approximately 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Then there is religion. Already the president Ronald Reagan noted in the 1980s that Latinos are Republicans by value, but they don’t yet know it themselves. There is support for this in Hazleton.
The new spirit of a dying city
When the parents are at work all summer, in the USA the children are sent to summer camp. In Hazleton, Latino families send their children to day camp at a small cultural center with kickball in the gym and coloring pictures of dogs downstairs.
Elaine Madden Curry works as the executive director of the cultural center. He thinks that the Catholic faith makes some Latinos alienate the Democrats.
– Many Latinos are against abortion. That might explain it. Many Latinos also belong to conservative evangelical churches. That could explain it too.
Madden Curry himself would never vote for Trump. He finds it sad how far the Republican Party has moved from a president who defended the rights of minorities of Abraham Lincoln worth.
– The irony is that we are all immigrants. “My family came from Italy, and my grandmother never spoke English,” says Madden Curry.
Curry notes that without immigration, Hazleton would also be a dying city.
– Many of these children feel themselves to be Americans. We don’t respect them or our own past unless we do something about it.
The eye turns away from Europe
After everyone else has eaten, Angie Chapman sits down to chicken and rice herself.
Although he has lived in the United States for 30 years, his daughter sometimes interprets English conversations for him. Chapman has lived in a big Spanish-speaking bubble.
This is a big deal for Finns as well. As the number and political influence of Latinos continues to grow, the attention of the great powers gradually turns away from Europe.
Chapman and Colon criticize the fact that the United States sends money to distant Ukraine, when there are problems closer to fix. According to Colon, one’s own country should be more important to the president than other countries.
– I love this country. Trump loves this country too, and he puts us first.
Now the Democrats hope that Kamala Harris will inspire the Democrats’ core supporters, i.e. young people, women and minorities, more than Biden, which is likely. In that case, recent developments would be reversed. However, Chapman and Colonia Harris are not insured.
– I can’t identify with Kamala Harris. She only started presenting herself as a minority woman when she ran for vice president, Colon says.
He reminds us that as a prosecutor, Harris sent many black men behind bars.
– He is not on our side, and he will not be.