No Translation Required: Long Island Latinos Say “They Get” Donald Trump’s Message

by Mike Clifford

NEW YORK – It was a combative exchange that lit up the Internet, and GOP candidate Donald Trump’s treatment of prominent Univision reporter Jorge Ramos is getting plenty of reaction in New York.

Joselo Lucero is a 41-year-old immigrant rights activist on Long Island. He saw the exchange on television and says if Trump can treat a citizen and network anchor like Jorge Ramos that way, then he is sending a message that it is fine to talk down to all Latinos.

“When he says to Jorge Ramos, ‘Go back to Univision,’ he’s saying ‘Go back to Mexico,'” says Lucero. “It is sending the wrong message to my community. I think a lot of people are going to understand it that way.”

Immigrant-rights groups sized up Trump’s comments as reflecting hatred, racism and disrespect. Trump defended his actions, telling NBC News “Ramos was acting like a madman” and, in Trump’s words, was totally out of line.

Kica Matos, director of immigrant rights and racial justice with the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, says 28 percent of New Yorkers are Latino and Univision is a trusted source for information not only in the United States but also around the world. She says Trump’s statements do not bode well for his party.

“The Republican Party has to take a strong statement and denounce racism and xenophobia,” says Matos. “I think Donald Trump, quite frankly, needs to shut the hell up and step away from the race because he’s a dangerous, dangerous man.”

Lucero agrees the GOP needs to act soon if it hopes to attract Latino voters in the 2016 presidential elections.

“It’s like having a pit bull outside your house and let him go,” he says. “That’s how I feel it, and that’s the Republicans. If they do absolutely nothing to control this pit bull, they are going to lose the elections, no matter what.”

Lucero says the same kind of talk was typical on Long Island when his brother Marcello was killed in a hate crime incident in Suffolk County in 2008.

Donald Trump’s security team removed Univision’s anchor from a press conference in Iowa.

Later, Ramos was let back in to the press conference where he said You cannot deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, you cannot deny citizenship to the children in this country.

PHOTO: Immigrant rights groups say many Latinos are angry at GOP candidate Donald Trump’s treatment of a prominent Spanish-language news anchor. Credit: Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM).