EL PASO, Texas. – In August 2019, a young white supremacist entered a supermarket in El Paso to kill Mexicans with a semi-automatic rifle and minutes later he took the lives of 22 people and injured 26 others. election year, the coronavirus pandemic was the protagonist, the Texans They did not forget this fatal incident when they cast their vote in the elections.
‘I’ve always thought of staying a Republican. Vote Republican. But this time I chose a Democrat, ”says DE, a Mexican who has been a US citizen for a quarter of a century and prefers to remain anonymous to avoid conflict with her family.
The reason this retiree decided to switch sides was because at the president-elect, Joe Biden, he saw a ‘lot’ that could translate into positive change for the Latino community. And on the other hand, outgoing president Donald Trump, to whom he voted in 2016, saw a “very racist” message that makes Americans see Hispanics “differently,” he says.
[Estos son los condados latinos donde más creció el apoyo a Trump en 2020]
Another major reason behind his vote, says DE, who moved to the United States in the 1970s, is that the Republican president was trying to de-legalize youths covered by Delayed Action for the Arrival of Children, or DACA, for the acronym in English.
“It is not fair that they study here, prepare and then bring them back to their country. Let them stay here to produce, to work, to live. Well, they can do a lot to benefit this country, ”says DE
However, DE believes that Biden will not have it easy because “It will have the legacy of four years of racism”. He also does not see that the Democrat can legalize 11 million undocumented migrants in the country, as he promised during the campaign. “It is a very difficult thing. I don’t think anyone believes it, but hey, he’s going to try, ”he notes.
Sammy Lewis, who also lives in El Paso, tells a similar story. He voted for the mogul in 2016 because he believed his term would boost the U.S. economy, but the August 3, 2019 shooting changed his mind.
[Cómo el petróleo ayudó a volver republicano este condado en la frontera que votaba demócrata desde hace un siglo]
The attacker basically said he was doing it for Trump. So that was a big factor for me in this election, ”he says.
Patrick Wood Crusius, 21, who lived in Dallas, published a manifesto in the days before the attack last August complaining of an alleged “Mexican invasion,” echoing Trump’s words.
“I am Mexican American, but I am not fluent in Spanish. But I know if I had been in that grocery store it would have been another target because of the color of my skin, ” Lewis said referring to the tragedy that killed 23, including U.S. citizens, Mexicans and a German (one person did not die immediately in the attack if not days later).
It is not the first time that Lewis has changed parties, as in 2012 he cast his vote to Democrat Barack Obama. The twenties, who grew up in this border town, notices this the immigration issue didn’t affect him so much in voting.
[Este joven latino de 19 años está detrás de uno de los giros más drásticos a favor de Trump en todo el país]
“Of course it would be nice if [los inmigrantes] they were vetted to make sure no killers enter America. But most of the traffic is family, that is, the grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters of people who are already there “Lewis notes.
Although the blue party won in this region, not all residents of this province refused to vote Trump. In fact, in El Paso, the Republican won 5.7% more votes compared to four years ago.
An example of this support is Adrián Estrada, who voted for the current president and believes the Biden government will allow more immigrants into the country without legal status. An idea that is not based on any of the President-elect’s official statements.
“[Biden] he wants to open the borders more, although he said he would not do so during the debates. I’ve seen his policies before, under Obama, and I don’t believe in what he represents for America. “, Estrada emphasizes.
[Estas son las promesas de inmigración de Joe Biden, el nuevo presidente electo]
“I feel like my voice is not being seen or heard,” lamented Estrada, who was born in El Paso and is the son of Mexicans. He says he believes the president-elect is too focused on “pleasing” the left and forgets the “voters of the center”.
According to Fernando García, founder and director of the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR), the reasons why some Hispanics in El Paso, who represent 82.9% of the province, voted for the party as Republican are a mix of several factors. Among these are moral values related to religious belief, economic stability or fear of possible implementation of so-called socialist or communist policies.
On the other hand, García explains, the reasons Latinos chose to vote for change were the exclusion of Latino communities in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the rise in racism towards the Mexican community and the need for it. change immigration policy at the border.
Even the Latin American conservatives who voted for Trump did not vote for Trump’s immigration policy, but for different reasons. There is consensus. The Latino community is demanding a change in immigration policy, “underscores the activist, who believes the Republican president based his statements about El Paso on” virtual reality “and a” promotion of a general disruption of migration and the border. ”
“The big challenge [del nuevo Gobierno] it will be how we can reconstruct the story we have at the border, ”he says.
García remembers Trump came to El Paso to testify “The War on Immigration” noting that this place was an “emergency zone and zero tolerance”.
And it was also here in El Paso that, according to the CEO, “unfortunately, Trump’s story of white supremacy, of racism, had an extraordinarily serious consequence,” with regard to the 2019 attack.
“This government has war technology, drones, helicopters, that’s all on this frontier. And the question then is: who is the enemy? and what is war? … Ultimately, all these paraphernalia has to do with a war against immigrants coming from Latin America, ”he emphasizes.
[Biden ha prometido frenar el muro fronterizo de Trump, pero chocaría con demandas para desarticularlo]
The head of the BNHR explains that migration policy in this region, regardless of party, has been a key point in the country’s politics for two decades, but that this was the first time these measures took a “racist and supremacist tint” .
According to García, this fact was not only seen in last year’s shooting, but also in the rise of militias who started detaining illegal immigrants or building their own wall in the middle of the desert thanks to private donations.
“We expect a series of executive actions to take place in the first three months of the Biden administration before legislative issues occur and those measures should begin to undo and eliminate all executive actions that Trump has taken,” he says, with the elimination of the refugee rejection program. ”García adds that thanks to this policy, thousands of families are currently living in inhumane conditions on the Mexican side of the border.
[¿Qué hay detrás del aumento en la popularidad de Trump entre los texanos?]
García also wants the Blue party to reaffirm after taking the White House support for youth with DACA, also known as dreamers, and withdrawal of the emergency declaration in the region. This measure has resulted in the military’s Department of Defense resources being used to build the wall further, a monument that he believes serves only to “be a symbol of Trump’s worst policies.”
In the legislation, García hopes that there will be a change in a possible immigration reform. Biden, who served as vice president under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2016, made a promise during one of the presidential debates, but it could be hard to deliver if the Democrats don’t get a majority in the Senate.
Lessons from the Obama term
“There is no argument [de porque el demócrata fue tan duro con la inmigración ilegal]Complains Cesar Blanco, a member of the Texas House of Representatives and a newly elected state senator. “As a Latino, that was something that really disappointed me.”
White says that too It seems clear to him that the Republican Party has launched an “anti-immigrant” and “anti-Latino” message over the past four years. and says he is encouraged that Biden has spotted changes in immigration policy in his first three months.
The elected senator insists he is comforted to see Biden appoint Latinos to senior positions in the White House, such as Cuban-American Alejandro Mayorkas, who has been nominated as Secretary of Homeland Security.
“It’s something we haven’t heard from other presidents before,” he says.