News Americas, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, Fri. Oct. 30, 2020: We are now just three days away from the Nov. 3rd general elections. Who would have thought back in 2016 that the long dark daunting path that had seemed endless, could come down to this? But here we are, counting down to what is hopefully the end of the reign of fear, hate and xenophobia that has marked this presidency.
But what is shocking to me, is that despite Donald Trump’s clear xenophobic policies and the scapegoating of brown and black immigrants over the past nearly four years, there are still immigrants who support him. I’ve seen the many “Latino For Trump” signs and we have already spoken about the lunacy of the Cuban and Venezuelan immigrant support in Florida, but what I did not realize is that there is a quiet pocket of Caribbean immigrant voters who for some strange reason are also supporting the Idiot-In-Chief.
I call them the ‘Enemy Within,’ because they obviously must hate themselves so much or are so mentally enslaved, that they cannot see that when Trump looks at them, all he sees are also “s-hole” immigrants. They are not from Norway after all and are visually only brown and black do the perception he will make is obvious to me, if not to them.
After the final Democratic debate on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020, I posted on my Facebook page about my thrill over moderator Kristen Welker finally posing an immigration question at the debate, since no other moderator in any prior debates or townhall had introduced the issue that Trump made a central theme of his campaign and administration.
To my surprise, a Caribbean immigrant voter quickly responded, that he did not support “illegal immigration” to the US and neither did he support a path to legalization for those undocumented immigrants in the country. This person had no suggested plan to deal with the 12 million plus immigrants who have been in the US without legal working papers for years, but all he knew was “we didn’t agree” on the issue.
Meaning essentially screw DREAMERS and those children kidnapped, put in cages and now may never see their parents again; Trump is right to do what he has done, and is doing.
The verbal assault was worst after the vice-presidential debates, when I questioned why immigration was still MIA. Another Caribbean immigrant, all agog over the way “Mr. Pence” had debated Senator Kamala Harris and who knows absolutely nothing about me, took it upon himself to post a response to my question by telling me ignorantly that I should: “get a one-way ticket back to where I come from.”
But it gets worst. Recently, Caribbean-American magazine, EVERYBODY’S, did a poll of its subscribers across the country and found that 6 percent of Caribbean voters say they will vote for the Donald Trump/Mike Pence ticket. Even more shocking, was this number had risen from 2.5 percent in 2016. Their two main reasons? The “economy and immigration.”
The Pew Hispanic Center also recently found in a poll of Latino immigrant voters, that 29 percent say they would vote for Trump or are leaning toward voting for him. In 2016, Latino voters had similar preferences, according to exit polls and a Pew Research Center study of validated voters.
Combining the two poll estimates, that means around 35 percent of immigrant voters could vote for or are leaning to voting for the Trump/Pence ticket. That is a shocking and stunning number of “enemies within.”
I’m clearly reminded of Imhotep Gary Byrd’s ‘Every Brother Ain’t A Brother,’ song right now. It is why this election is going to be close, despite what so-called pundits are claiming. Every vote matters, but as an immigrant voter, I voted not for the economy, immigration, COVID-19 or because the sole of this country is on the ballot.
I voted because I am literally afraid for my life in this country if Donald Trump is re-elected. That should be the main reason every black and brown immigrant voter votes against Donald Trump and Mike Pence come Nov. 3rd.
