Fans of Donald Trump Even as They Can't Send Their Kids to School, They Blame Not Trump
 |
| Since coming from Mexico in 1993, Aldair Mata taught himself English, worked every imaginable restaurant job, became a U.S. citizen and fathered nine children, one of whom went to Stanford.Credit...Carlos Javier Ortiz for The New York Times |
Mr. Mata (Us Citizen but his family is not) Voted for Trump. Mata is a worker, US Citizen.
He opens his phone pulled out his phone to show Jose a couple of Spanish language news clips that were going viral that night: ICE agents using tear gas on a Texas home to force the family to open the door. Plainclothes federal agents in Tennessee marching food truck employees off apparently without a warrant. Mr. Mata and Jose watched grimly. “They can do whatever they want,” Jose said, and rubbed his face anxiously.
One more detail about these friends: They are both fans of Donald Trump. Mr. Mata voted for Trump, and though Jose can’t vote, he tells me that Mr. Trump “has courage.”
The men’s approval is striking when you consider that Mr. Trump has made their lives much harder. Even Mr. Mata, a citizen, now avoids going out, carries a photo of his passport in case he gets questioned and frets over his siblings, both of whom are undocumented immigrants. As for Jose, he’s afraid his family will get pulled apart, especially since the kids have different citizenships. He and his wife debate returning to Mexico or perhaps leaving Jose to work here alone while she takes the children over the border.
“If it keeps on like this,” he told me, “we can’t stay.”
But Jose doesn’t hold Mr. Trump responsible. Neither does Mr. Mata. They both blame “the Venezuelans,” which is shorthand for the more than 50,000 migrants (about 30,000 of them Venezuelan) who’ve poured into Chicago since 2022. Most of them came by bus from the Mexican border, dispatched by Republican officials eager to teach the sanctimonious sanctuary cities a lesson. Jose complains that “nothing matters” to the migrants, that some of them commit crimes and receive coveted work permits despite being “lazy.”
Comments