Donald Trump, who has based his presidential campaign on the belief that immigrants are “destroying” the United States and has called for mass deportation, faced tough, direct questions from undecided Hispanic voters on Tuesday.
During a town hall hosted by Univision, the largest Spanish-language network in the U.S., several dozen Latino voters from around the country pressed the former president on topics such as immigration, the economy, abortion, and other key issues.
The Republican candidate, who has been intensifying efforts to appeal to Latino voters, struggled to give specific answers on policy, while continuing to spread misinformation about immigration.
Polls show that Trump is gaining traction with Hispanic voters, who, like many other demographic groups, express greater trust in him on economic matters. Latino voters are a growing and crucial bloc in several swing states. At the town hall, where 100 voters were present, Trump did not address his plans for the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
He evaded or dismissed challenging questions about his rhetoric and policies on immigration. When a voter who identified as a registered Republican asked why Trump continues to promote the debunked myth that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, Trump doubled down.
“I was just repeating what was reported,” he said, adding that migrants were “eating other things too, that they’re not supposed to.”
Guadalupe Ramirez, whose parents migrated from Mexico, sought more specifics on Trump’s immigration proposals and questioned why he urged lawmakers to oppose a bipartisan immigration reform bill. Trump avoided giving details, choosing instead to criticize Democratic leaders, including the Illinois governor, alleging that migrants are driving up crime, while boasting of having “the strongest border.”
When California farmworker Jorge Velázquez bluntly asked who would perform the grueling work of harvesting America’s crops if Trump deported the many undocumented workers currently doing the job, the former president sidestepped the question.
He accused newer immigrants of taking jobs away from Hispanic Americans and depicted migrants as “hundreds of thousands of people who are murderers, drug dealers, and terrorists,” as he often does.
“We need great people to come into our country,” Trump stated. “I want them here even more than you do.” However, he did not directly address the issue of deportations.
Meanwhile, at her own Univision town hall, Kamala Harris outlined her policies aimed at tackling inflation and protecting abortion rights. She also warned that her opponent was spreading misinformation and division.
“I believe the vast majority of us share more in common than what divides us,” she said. “What troubles me is the approach taken by Donald Trump and others, who pit us against each other and use language to demean people. That’s not healthy for our country, and it’s not something I respect.”
