Hispanic voters in Georgia react to a debate that often centered on immigration

Over three dozen people filled a Venezuelan restaurant in Duluth on Thursday evening to watch the CNN Presidential Debate.

The ideological slant of the gathering was clear: plastered around the restaurant’s walls, including below plates heaping with empanadas and tequeños were signs that read “Latin Americans for Trump” — the newly rebranded name for the coalition of Hispanic voters that support the former president. Until earlier this month, the coalition was dubbed “Latinos for Trump.” Other signs read, “Viva el sueño americano,” or ‘”live the American dream.”

According to restaurant owner Franklin Viloria, hosting the watch party was an easy decision to make.

“I support [Republicans] one hundred percent,” he said. “I came from Venezuela 23 years ago and I’ve never gotten involved in politics. But I definitely feel like I have to contribute my little grain of sand now to make a change.”

In his view, the most pressing issue is the economy and public safety, both of which he says have grown imperiled under President Biden.

“We came here from our countries to avoid these types of problems, and it turns out some of the same things are happening.”

Victor Armendariz, a local Mexican American conservative radio host, addressed the crowd as the debate was starting.

“Four years ago, gas cost you less, food cost you less. Everything about your life cost you less money. … This is important tonight,” he said. “We’ve got English going and Spanish going. It’s because we’re all one. We’re Americans. Before I’m Mexican, I’m American. … And here in this country, to succeed, it doesn’t matter — brown, Black, white — I don’t care what you are and I don’t care what language you speak.”

As the debate got underway, it sometimes proved difficult for the exchange between Trump and Biden to hold the crowd’s attention.

The first applause line of the night?

Trump’s assertion that the border is considered the most dangerous place in the world.

The border would go on to be one of the night’s most talked-about topics, with Trump repeatedly steering his answers back to his opponent’s record on immigration — the number of illegal border crossings reached record highs during the Biden administration — and painting migrants as dangerous criminals.

David Martinez, who was at the watch party wearing a hat that read ‘Hispanics for Trump,’ said he found the former president “direct and confident in his answers and his responses,” a contrast to Biden’s “frailness.”

He said Republicans like him aren’t opposed to immigration in principle, but they’d like it to take place in a more controlled way.

“We want people from other countries. We need people from other countries. But there has to be a process, and they should be able to follow that process.”

Despite the unprecedented flows of illegal border crossings in recent years, Trump’s assertion of an open border under Biden is false. During his administration, Biden has rolled out restrictions on people’s ability to come and seek asylum that are widely perceived as being among the most restrictive of any Democrat in the White House.

Trump’s continued conflation of migrants with criminals and terrorists was also misleading.

While some individuals who entered the country illegally have gone on to commit violent crimes, including here in Georgia, data shows that a vast majority of immigrants don’t. According to a Northwestern University study published earlier this year, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens.

Julio Clavijo, 42, said he was “ticked off” by comments made by Trump about immigrants. Clavijo lives in Norcross and works as a product manager in the software industry. He said he was born in Peru, moved to the states with he was 3 years old, and is a U.S. citizen.

He said he understands there are concerns about illegal immigration, but said, “There’s no reason to demonize people who are coming over here for opportunity. That’s my big issue with Trump.”

But Clavijo said more than anything, he was deeply disappointed by Biden’s performance at the debate, and that’s what stuck with him the most. “It’s like his abilities aren’t there anymore. I feel bad because I don’t want to vote for Trump.”

He joins a growing chorus of people who are saying a change in candidate is needed.

“I think it’s almost a blessing they had the debate before the convention. It’s an opportunity to make a pivot quickly and put someone out there who could actually beat Trump.”

Another Trump falsehood on the debate stage centered on unauthorized immigration’s impact on Social Security.

“But Social Security, he’s destroying it because millions of people are pouring into our country and they are putting them onto Social Security,” Trump claimed.

In reality, undocumented workers often pay taxes that help fund Social Security, even as their lack of legal status bar them from receiving public benefits — including Social Security but also Medicaid and food stamps.

“He is completely ignorant because he comes from immense privilege and has never had to deal with the Social Security Administration like most Americans,” said Luis Zaldivar, the Georgia director for CASA, an immigrant advocacy group.

Roberto Severino, a 29-year-old voter in South Georgia’s Cook County, said he would have liked to see moderators play a more active role on Thursday.

“I wish they had done more, kind of challenged the candidates on certain things. Even with Biden, drawing a bit more on the Israel issue, trying to get more answers out of him. And at the same time, reminding Trump that, ‘Hey, you’re going off-topic here, this has nothing to do with the question that was asked.’”

Both Severino and another voter, Antonio Mireles of Statesboro, say they still lean toward voting for Biden, despite his shaky performance.

Both men said they’re used to Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“Ever since [Trump] first started talking about immigration, it took a tone that you know he just pretty much put me in a corner where I feel like I have to defend myself to everybody. And I was born in the States,” Mireles said.

For the Hispanic community leaders working to get more Latinos registered and engaged in the political process, the debate was seen as a step back.

“The Latino community is fundamentally young and therefore really hard to connect with the performance we saw yesterday,” said Gigi Pedraza, executive director of the Latino Community Fund Georgia, in a statement. “Discussing golf and tax cuts is irrelevant to the majority of people. And yet the Latino community is overwhelmingly optimistic. Focusing on how the future would look like under each candidate should be a better use of time.”

“This is kind of sad that this is the best we have to offer. We have two old men out there, guys who are super old. I mean come on now,” Mireles added. “It’s embarrassing.”

If there are debate-watchers still trying to make up their minds among the more than 400,000 registered Hispanic voters in Georgia, an eventual decision could be based on what they found most concerning: Biden’s gait and unsteady performance or Trump’s reliance on anti-immigrant rhetoric to evade unrelated questions. That’s according to Emory University political scientist Andra Gillespie, an expert in the political behavior of voters of color.

“Trump doesn’t just say that immigration is terrible and Biden is messing it up. It’s ‘America is becoming a third world country,’ right? That has racial overtones to it,” she said. Latino voters “might have felt that their identities were being attacked,” and that could move some of them to the Democratic camp, despite misgivings they might have about Biden.

Overall, Thursday’s primetime display of both candidates’ weaknesses “will make field organizers’ jobs harder,” Gillespie added.