Trump Hears At A Latino Campaign Event From Someone Who Lived In The U.S. Illegally
HuffPost
A panelist at a Donald Trump campaign event in Nevada on Saturday admitted to the former president he had come to the United States illegally.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Minutes after Donald Trump delivered his standard warnings about drug dealers and criminals illegally crossing the border during a Saturday campaign event, the former president heard from someone who was once in the country illegally but now plans to vote for him.
Elias Trujillo was one of several people who spoke Saturday at a Latino roundtable in Las Vegas intended to spotlight Trump’s economic ideas. After Trump finished addressing a small crowd inside the warehouse of a women’s cosmetics company, members of the roundtable spoke. Trujillo began by telling his personal story, how his mother brought him and his brothers from northern Mexico to Utah in 1995 to rejoin their father, who was working in construction.
“We came here legally, but you know, we overstayed, and we were able to make life here in the United States,” Trujillo said, referring to the action of entering the U.S. on a legal visa but not departing when that visa expires.
At least one person in the audience began laughing and applauding, leading Trujillo to laugh and acknowledge, “It is funny.” Trump smiled as he looked at Trujillo.
The moment highlighted the contradictory ways the facts and rhetoric of immigration play in the campaign. The paradoxes are sharper as Trump has simultaneously counted on increased support from Latinos returning him to the White House even as he has centered his campaign on a dark view of immigration.