Mitch Perry
Although Donald Trump might be wearing down some who voters who previously resisted his various messages, there are certain groups of people in this country who say they are more fired up than ever to vote this fall against him, if he becomes the Republican nominee for president.
Those groups including Latino activists in Florida.
“The reality is that there are thousands upon thousands of eligible voters that are going to register to vote in this election in record numbers, and the irony is that that record registration is actually coming from the direct threat and attack from candidates who continue to speak negatively and deplorably of the immigrants in this country,” said Jose Luis Marantes, an activist with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, speaking at a rally in Tampa’s Ybor City on Wednesday. “They think that by saying those words, by threatening us with walls, by threatening us with deportation, that they will make us hide, and cower, and go home.
“The reality is they’re emboldening us, angering us, and preparing us to get ready to vote and to show in 2016, that anyone who stands the immigrant community and everyone who stand against immigrants in Florida will never have a place in our electoral process.”
The event, held in Ybor’s Centennial Park, was part of caravan organized by the We Are Florida! campaign this week that will conclude in Tallahassee on Thursday, a day before the 2016 Florida Legislative session is set to conclude.
Anti-immigration activists were in a buoyant mood in going to the state capital. That’s because of the nine different bills aimed at undocumented immigrants by Republicans in the Legislature this Session, none are going to Gov. Rick Scott’s desk for his signature.
Among those proposals that failed included House Bill 9, a bill filed by Miami Republic Carlos Trujillo, which would have make it a felony to live in Florida with a deportation order. Another, Senate Bill 150 sponsored by Palm Coast Republican Senator Travis Hutson, increased penalties if a crime is committed by an undocumented immigrant.
In particular, many immigration groups’ anger was focused on House Bill 675, the so-called “sanctuary cities” bill sponsored by Groveland Republican Larry Metz. In sanctuary cities, local authorities strictly limit their cooperation with federal immigration officials’ detention requests to allow a more compassionate response to immigrants.
None of them passed.
“If it weren’t for us being present in Tallahassee for the Legislative Session, then I think you would have had a different outcome,” says Jenny Figueroa from the Florida SEIU.
Showing more political organization and skills than ever before, anti-immigrant activists began lobbying against the legislation in Tallahassee before the session began. Figueroa said she was proud of the sheer number of people who came to the Capitol this session. “We had so many who showed up in Tallahassee in January, and then in February. Even those who were scared and afraid, they came out of the shadows to say ‘pasta ya,’ saying no more. They’re fighting for what they believe in, which is trying to keep their families together.”
Trump’s presidential candidacy began with his declaration that he’d find a way to deport the estimated 11 million undocumented people living in the U.S., and that stance has in part fueled his strength in the Republican primaries and caucuses.
Those same immigration politics were a factor in the disappointing campaigns of Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.
“This year we’re stopping and lobbying against anti-immigrant proposals,” said Daniel Barajas, executive director of the Young American Dreamers. “But in the years to come as we mobilize more generations, we will be pushing and fighting to pass actual pro immigrant right laws that actually give these children a future, and give these and give these families tranquility,” he said.
Figueroa says that the SEIU and the Fight for 15! campaign will be sending buses filled with hundreds of people down to Coral Gables Thursday to protest Trump outside the University of Miami, the site of Thursday night’s GOP presidential debate.
“We’re going to show our presence,” she said. “We’re going to let him know that we’re registering people to vote, we’re going to be knocking door to door, talking to folks, and were going to make sure to get our folks to register, and go out to vote.”
