Several
of Donald Trump’s most prominent Hispanic supporters are reconsidering
their support following his major speech on immigration Wednesday.
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| Trump |
Jacob
Monty, an attorney based in Houston, resigned from the Republican
candidate’s National Hispanic Advisory Council after hearing the speech
in Phoenix, Politico reported early Thursday morning.
“I
was a strong supporter of Donald Trump when I believed he was going to
address the immigration problem realistically and compassionately,”
Monty told the news site. “What I heard today was not realistic and not
compassionate.”
After weeks of toying with “softening” his deportation-based approach to illegal immigration, the GOP nominee on Wednesday gave a speech in which he embraced the hard-line policies and incendiary rhetoric
that defined his primary campaign. He said that anyone in the United
States illegally would be subject to deportation and vowed to bolster
security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
For
many Hispanic conservatives like Monty, who had advocated passionately
for Trump, the speech was not merely a disappointment, but a betrayal.
They hoped the candidate would lay out a plan for dealing humanely with
the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country,
especially those with no involvement in violent crime.
Trump’s
support among Latino voters is far beneath that of past Republican
candidates, according to public polls, which presents a unique challenge
for the mogul as he seeks to win key states — like Florida, Nevada and
Colorado — with large Hispanic constituencies.
On Thursday, Democrat
Hillary Clinton’s campaign began to run ads in Arizona, a historically Republican state but with a large number of Latino voters.
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