Latinos for Trump founder Marco Gutierrez commented on Thursday that, if Clinton were to win, there would be “taco trucks [on] every corner.”
Gutierrez was referring to stricter immigration policies, for which Trump has been an advocate of, but his comments on MSNBC only deterred him from trying to rally support for Trump’s stance on immigration. Users in social media did not wait to both mock and praise Gutierrez’s comments, as the Internet loves two things: Cute animals and tacos.
“My culture is a dominant culture, and it’s imposing and it’s causing problems,” Marco Gutierrez stated on MSNBC. “If you don’t do something about it, you’re gonna have taco trucks [on] every corner.”
Gutierrez’s comments were met with disgust by Latino politicians, including New York State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, who at one time was an undocumented immigrant. He responded to Gutierrez’s comments simply by saying “Mi casa, tu casa,” citing the hospitality and tolerance of Hispanic culture, as it welcomes neighbors and the sharing of culture.
The hashtag #tacotrucksoneverycorner went trending after Gutierrez’s remarks.
Trump will have to change his stance on immigration
One of the most controversial aspects of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is his stance on immigration. With a clear intention of looking for external support in his ideas, Trump flew to Mexico to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto, after which he delivered a speech on immigration. His remaining choice is to soften his policies as the Latino demographic in the U.S. cannot be deemed as an adversary but rather an important sector of Americans whose opinions matter and whose actions have a direct impact on the U.S.’s economy.
When Trump returned to Phoenix after meeting President Peña Nieto, Trump delivered a familiar speech about his well-known stance on immigration, only that he chose to omit the part about Mexico paying for the wall on the border. The change in rhetoric comes from a tweet sent by the Mexican president which revealed that his country would refuse to pay for the wall’s construction. Initially, the question of who will pay for the wall was not supposed to be present during the meeting, to which Peña Nieto made a bold move and went public about the issue, catching Trump off guard.
Trump did not lack the nerve to be aggressive and stated in his speech that “they don’t know it yet, but they’re going to pay for the wall.”
Going down to Mexico
Mexicans met Trump’s invitation to their country with disapproval, but it appears that it all was a political stunt to force Trump to take part in international diplomacy, which in this case translates to which country is going to pay for the wall that will separate them if he were to win. It is evident that Donald Trump saw a chance in recovering support from Hispanic voters by opening up to dialogue with the Mexican head of state.
One of Peña Nieto’s advisers stated that in the meeting, only disagreements appeared in the initial talks, including the wall and other issues. It was suggested that such arguments were tried to be left out of topic as the Republican candidate, and the Mexican president focused on talking about the contributions Mexican people bring to the U.S., which in Trump’s exact words in his early campaign goes to “drugs, crime, rapists.”
Because Trump saw Peña Nieto’s tweet just before giving the speech, many doubted if he had discussed the matter with the Mexican president at all. The meeting was an attempt at putting Trump in the position of a world leader, where negotiations are latent, and many assure that negotiation is one of Trump’s strong points. The meeting in Mexico was a fiasco, as he did not achieve any progress in securing any support from neither group. As soon as he was landing in Phoenix, the Mexican president simply said “no” to Trump’s attempts to force Mexico to pay for a wall that would reduce bilateral trade and would impose cultural and social restrictions on two countries with a shared history that goes centuries back.
Immigration may cost him the candidacy
Members of Trump’s Hispanic Advisory Council have recognized that he might lose the election due to his blunt way of speaking and shortcoming when addressing problems, especially immigration. These past weeks Trump has focused on immigration policy, as there are over 11 million illegal immigrants in U.S. soil. Trump tried different approaches and tactics using the same repulsive ideas that have originated nothing but disregard for his beliefs in the role of immigrant’s in the U.S.
In the end, Donald Trump chose to stick by his guns that allowed him to win the Republican primaries, which means that he has the support of most American white males who stand by conservative policies.
On Thursday, perhaps thanks to his meeting with the Mexican president, Trump did not assert the need of expelling every undocumented immigrant, something that analysts have deemed as a fatal procedure for the U.S. economy. One of Trump’s supporters, Katrina Pierson, stated that Trump had not changed his position on immigration, but rather the words that he is saying. That is precisely one of the things Trump is being criticized for, as he is a demagogue who only relies on words to flare up audiences and adversaries, rather than using them to propose ideas and try and persuade opposing entities to get behind his back. Curiously, it was revealed that Trump held an open talk with his staff at Trump Tower to find new alternatives to mass deportation, as it is just inviable.
On the meeting of Trump Tower, Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council focused on trying to make him understand that undocumented immigrants are vital for the economy. Trump has previously stated that he is willing to lend a hand to immigrants who prove to work hard and achieve a prosperous and rightful life, but there still has to be a radical change of his stances on immigration for him to reach a significant upper hand in the election.
Source: Washington Post