When you’re gauging the mood of Latinos in the United States, you start with Jorge Ramos.
The long-time Univision anchor has been called the “Latino Walter Cronkite,” and has called both Republicans and Democrats to task for failing to pass a solution to our nation’s broken immigration system at the federal level.
As a former official for Republican President George W. Bush once said, “Remember what L.B.J. said, ‘When you lose Walter Cronkite, you’ve lost the war’? [Ramos is] not only a journalist, he’s become the voice of the Latino constituency.”
“And that’s where Republicans have to worry. You don’t want to lose Jorge Ramos.”
Now, in an interview with CNN, the Emmy-winning anchor called the immigration stances of Donald Trump — currently the leading Republican candidate for President — “absurd” and reminded viewers why immigration, and Trump “spreading hate” on the issue, is such a deeply personal and defining concern for millions of Latino voters:
“This is not politics for us, this is personal. When he’s talking about immigrants, he’s talking about me. He’s talking about the half of the Latino population in this country who is 18 years or older that was born in another country…it is having an immediate political impact…it is impossible for him to win the White House without the Hispanic vote.”
Not to mention, Trump’s mass-deportation plans are completely unrealistic (and unpopular — Pew polling shows that 72% of Americans say that undocumented immigrants already in the US should be able to stay):
Ramos broke down Trump’s proposals, saying none of them are workable. “He can’t deport 11 million people from this country…can you imagine the human rights violation that that would create?” Ramos said estimates of the cost of deporting that many people run as high as 137 billion dollars.
“What he is trying to sell to the American public simply doesn’t work. How is he going to deport 11 million people — by bus, by plane? Is he going to bring the army to do that?”
Just a few weeks ago, Ramos called Trump “the loudest voice of intolerance, division, and hatred right now in America”:
He told Stelter Trump’s remarks are dangerous, and when Stelter asked if he thinks they could incite violence, Ramos said, “Just imagine what all the people might do with it.”
Sadly, Ramos was right. Days ago, two brothers made headlines for brutally assaulting a homeless Latino man in Boston, leaving him with a broken nose, bruised ribs, and soaked in their urine as a final act of humiliation.
After their arrest, the brothers laid blame for their assault squarely at the feet of Donald Trump:
“Police said Scott Leader, 38, told them it was OK to assault the man because he was Hispanic and homeless.
“‘Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported,’” he allegedly told the police.”
Ramos reiterated the dangerous course the Republican Party is taking right now regarding its rhetoric on immigrants and immigration:
“When you say immigrants from Mexico are criminals and rapists, isn’t that spreading hate?”
Watch Jorge Ramos’s complete interview on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” below.
