What do Latinos think of Trump?

Originally from Mexico, Diaz has lived in the United States for 20 years, working numerous jobs, including construction and fast food to support his wife, who works as a house cleaner, and two kids, both born here. With Donald Trump’s recent election and claims of mass deportation, he’s thought about what it would be like if he were kicked out of the country. 

"Right now we are waiting on immigration to come. Since we don't have a simplistic way to get papers or documents that will protect us,  we are with the idea that we are waiting to be deported,” he said. “Who's going to look after my kids?”

Trump stokes racist tendencies among his supporters, Diaz said, which he was on the receiving end of during his first term.

About one-quarter of the county’s population is Latino, meaning immigration concerns are top of mind for many residents — especially in light of Trump’s professed commitment to mass deportations, which could include more than 10 million people. And though it’s hard to know how many undocumented immigrants reside in San Mateo County, 2019 estimates from Migration Policy Institute put the number around 55,000, about 60% from Mexico and Central America — though that figure has likely increased since then. As of 2022, about 36% of residents in the county were foreign-born, making it the county with second-highest foreign born population across the state, according to the Public Policy Institute. 

But Trump’s support among Latino voters even in San Mateo County has likely only improved since 2020. According to figures from Political Data Intelligence, there was a 27% increase in Republican-registered Latino voters between the 2020 and 2024 elections. And most of the county’s Republican candidates running for state and federal offices saw a slightly higher percentage of votes compared to 2020. 

While it remains a liberal stronghold, it’s clear that the Democratic message around immigration has become stale and unimpressive for many — even for some who are undocumented. Diaz is not a fan of Trump, but his attitude toward government assistance is also at odds with traditionally left-leaning rhetoric. 

“I see many people who aren't scared of the government asking for help. They ask for food stamps, welfare, help with rent when they don't need it, instead of looking for a job. Unfortunately, because of them they say that all the Latinos ask for money,” he said. “Two years ago I was offered monetary help to pay my rent, but I said no.”

Nadia Flamenco, a Republican who was recently elected to the Jefferson Elementary School District, is originally from El Salvador. When it comes to Trump potentially deporting millions of people, she said liberals rarely acknowledge that former President Barack Obama deported more people than Trump did, even when comparing Obama’s 2013-17 term to Trump’s 2017-21 term. And the lack of control at the border means more women and children are being trafficked into the country, only boosting cartel strongholds. 

She also wishes there were better paths to citizenship, as well as opportunities to use career training and experience from one’s home country to the United States. She practiced law in El Salvador, but said there is no way to transfer her skills here without starting from scratch. 

“There has to be a better process, and not just for admission, but to also incorporate a lot of professionals. I feel like that's the way they are losing a lot of knowledge,” she said. “The other day I met a man who was doing Uber, and he was a doctor in his country, so the process of immigration has to change, as well as the process of incorporation into society.”

Redwood City resident Elizabeth Starks, who is originally from Peru, has supported Trump since 2016. She doesn’t believe he will deport undocumented, non-criminal immigrants who are simply trying to make better lives for themselves and their families.

“I am a strong believer, and I have a lot of faith Trump will never send away people like that,” Starks said. “He will not send away people who are good people. He will get rid of all the criminals and looters and bad people.”

The backlog of immigration court cases is staggering, increasing consistently over the past decade. As of October, the San Francisco and Concord immigration courts, which serve the entire Bay Area, are currently seeing a backlog of about 190,000 cases, according to the Transaction Records Clearinghouse database. That number has increased more than fivefold since 2014. 

That figure refers to those in deportation proceedings, such as those who arrived at the border requesting admission — often asylum — or were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to prior criminal convictions or deportations. It doesn’t even include many immigration cases of those who are here lawfully and seeking changes or updates to their status, said Martha Ruch, an immigration attorney at Community Legal Services in San Mateo County. She said the office has received an uptick in calls and requests to receive immigration-related legal advice ahead of Trump’s administration.

“We’ve definitely gotten more calls from clients or people seeking services and also from more schools and churches, both requesting know-your-rights training,” Ruch said, although she said there is still uncertainty of what will specifically change. “The law hasn’t changed yet … but we’ll need to be paying attention during the Trump administration for changes to immigration enforcement policy, which is what the president can most directly impact but also policy in immigration court, which the president can influence.”

Adriana Arriaga, 31, who grew up in San Mateo and works at a nonprofit, said she is nervous about the likely deportations and its impact on the community. 

“I’m honestly scared for our community, especially our immigrant community, given whatever’s going to happen next year,” she said, adding that she felt more hate toward the Latino community during Trump’s presidency. “I just really hope that we’re able to unite and come together.” 

‘Not a monolith’

East Palo Alto resident Nora Melendez knows about the daunting prospect of deportation. She did not support President Trump, in part due to her husband’s precarious immigration status. Her husband, originally from El Salvador, was previously held in an ICE detention facility in 2018, leaving her to take care of their three young children on her own. Despite his prior record, stemming from activities he did in his 20s, she said he has turned his life around, is a productive member of society, runs his own cleaning business and is an excellent father to their kids. She’s worried that the new administration may put their now-stable life in jeopardy. 

“The beginning of November was hard. Everyone was feeling the pressure of what would happen and what might become,” she said, adding that she feels more at peace now. “[Latinos] are not a monolith. Everyone has their personal opinion about whatever is going on, and that’s what they have in front of them and that’s what they know … I’m just focusing on myself and my family.”

The court process for asylum seekers can be particularly lengthy. The number of pending asylum court cases in the Bay Area is nearing 170,000 — increasing from 31,000 in 2014. As of the end of last year, the region’s average time between the initial court filing and first asylum hearing was more than 4.5 years, though that number has also likely increased since.

County resident Marbely Elizabeth Herrera Gomez fled Honduras in 2016 after being beaten up, discriminated against and receiving death threats throughout her life — in many cases from police officers —  for being transgender. After escaping to Mexico and then the United States — where she spent two months in a New Mexico detention facility — she was finally granted political asylum last year. After six years, she was able to prove her life was in danger in Honduras and finally received official permission to stay in the country.

“When Trump was in office, I had my court date, and my lawyer changed it because there was a Trump judge and … my lawyer knew I wasn’t going to win because the Trump judges don’t accept the [LGBT] community. The new judge that was supportive of Biden granted me asylum,” she said in Spanish. “For the others [in the LGBT community], I hope it goes well for them because getting asylum isn’t easy. You have to go through a lot of tests, have a good lawyer and know how to do everything. It’s difficult.”

Even though she has legal status, she said she is still scared to leave the country under the new administration in case there are changes to the law and she isn’t let back in. Being in California gives her some peace of mind, but it’s still unnerving having a new president who isn’t supportive toward her community. 

“In my home country, we don’t have rights,” she said. 

Gender identity

While she’s able to live a better life in the United States, it still doesn’t mean everyone in the country, or even San Mateo County, supports her community. Starks believes exposing children to trans people, or even books with transgender characters, is a form of “grooming” — which typically refers to those preying on minors for sexual purposes — and mind manipulation. She claims that the California government agencies, like Child Protective Services, take away custody from parents if they don’t approve of gender-affirming medical care, like puberty blockers or surgery. 

“This is some Marxist ideology,” she said. “They are bringing books to these children, and it is horrifying. They are trying to change the minds of the kids.”

But parental consent for gender affirming care like puberty blockers or surgery is required in California. And the idea that a government agency, like Child Protective Services, could take away children if their parents don’t sign off on such treatment is untrue, said Lois Weithorn, a University of San Francisco law professor specializing in families and children. California law mandates at least one parent’s consent for such treatment although practitioners may often require both parents’ consent at their discretion. Minors can receive counseling and discuss gender identity without parents' knowledge, but any physically-altering medical treatment related to gender transition requires their involvement. 

“Kids will not get any kind of gender-affirming medical care without parental consent,” Weithron said. “I think some of what has been said about this is what I’ll call disinformation, because some of those that have initiated these statements know they are false.”

Flamenco doesn’t have animosity toward the transgender community and said she’d always support her children, regardless of the decisions they make around their body and gender identity when they’re adults. But she feels uncomfortable with children receiving gender-affirming care, something she said has ramped up in recent years. Up until around 2020, she considered herself a Democrat — and was active in Daly City politics — but said she became turned off by the rhetoric stemming from the Black Lives Matter movement, when there were calls to defund the police, and one’s race was disingenuously used as a tool to elevate or criticize another’s opinion.

“I believed that if you incorporate police with different ethnicities, it would be better than saying, ‘we're going to defund them,’” she said. “I come from scarcity, and I know that evil people exist in any race and in any color.”

She added that Latinos are often skeptical of government expansion of power, given many came from countries with a violent communist past. Government and institutional mandates, like the COVID-19 vaccine, didn’t sit well with her, and even seemingly noble causes, like government-funded affordable housing initiatives in the Bay Area, only focus on renting, so that people can’t own property anymore. 

“They build these little buildings and say, ‘If you’re a teacher, we’re going to give you a little apartment.’ Why don’t the banks and the government policies say, ‘Let’s give our local people some opportunity to own,’” she said. “Why do they want us to rent? When a government wants you to rent and not own, it goes against a lot of Latinos … because we come from communism.”

Religion as influence

Both Flamenco and Starks said their religion also impacts how they view family. 

“As Latinos, Catholics or Christians, we were built in a way that our families are very strong,” she said. “We want to have safety, and we want to protect our children … all my kids are very conservative, and my family is conservative.”

Arriaga, who considers herself liberal, said she is disappointed with many Latinos’ shift to the right. She acknowledges that religion plays a central role among many Latinos, but feels that shouldn’t justify an exclusionary attitude. 

“Sometimes I feel like it's whatever the church says. I'm religious too, but I feel like I've been able to also understand the harm that religion has played on indigenous communities and on our LGBTQ communities,” she said. “I think another thing that is also really big is the machismo culture as well.”

Gomez was not exposed to friendly or inclusive rhetoric around the LGBT community growing up. In fact, not long after she arrived in the United States, a trans journalist was murdered outside their workplace in Honduras. Everyone pretended like nothing happened — it was as if they killed an animal, she said. While she has faced discrimination here, it’s not like in Honduras. The reason she has been able to build a life in the United States — one that includes a marriage, a full-time job and community — was because of a Christian-based organization that connected her with a group of Americans who offered to sponsor her while she underwent the asylum process. 

She said only God can take away things like abortion or the LGBT community, not Trump. 

“Trump thinks he is bigger than [God],” she said. “It’s not possible.”

alyse@smdailyjournal.com

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