During the immigration segment of the third presidential debate, the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stated “And once the border is secured, at a later date, we’ll make a determination as to the rest. But we have some bad hombres here and we’re going to get them.”
Trump’s rhetoric immediately landed him in hot water with not only the public but his party during this election cycle. Within 20 minutes of the third and final debate, he used the mixed language phrase to describe people of Hispanic descent who he considers criminals. Shortly, after that, “bad hombres” began trending on Twitter and other social media. Satirical memes were manufactured and shared across the internet.
“My jaw dropped. I felt horrible and almost scared because I know that’s how some people honestly feel,” said Daryl Satterwhite, a half Puerto Rican freshman psychology major. “People already tell my mom to ‘go back to her country’ so if he wins I just don’t know what I’m going to do as a minority.”
Satterwhite said he does not favor either candidate that was on the debate stage Wednesday but will vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in November.
The moderator and Fox News journalist, Chris Wallace, thanked Trump for his answer and moved on, but the rest of America did not brush his response off and take it lightly. After the debate, panelists hashed his response over and commented.
One of CNN’s political commentators, Ana Navarro, a Nicaraguan Republican has been highly critical of Trump. A tweet of hers has earned almost 7,000 retweets. “13 percent of Latinos favor Trump. Reality check: Most Latinos think Trump’s a ‘bad hombre’. And we know how to pronounce it. Un hombre malo y loco (A bad and crazy man).” said the tweet
Trump has stated that he has a “very good relationship with hispanics” and has promised to improve their lives if elected. According to Politico Magazine polls, 13 percent of Latino voters are in favor of Trump. Suffolk students, of Hispanic descent, have recently shown dissent for comments that Trump has made, which they have widely deemed negative.
“I was disgusted he even said that because his whole campaign he’s been very racist and sexist,” said Nick Andres, 18, who is half Cuban, is voting for Clinton. “It surprises me that people are still considering voting for him.”
He states his ideal candidate was Senator Bernie Sanders but still agrees with Clinton’s platform.
According to a recent Univision poll, Clinton would comfortably win the Hispanic vote in four swing states: Florida, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado.
A Washington Post poll showed that only 13 percent of hispanic immigrants had a favorable view of Trump, while 87 percent favor Clinton. With American-born hispanics, the percentages are closer with Clinton leading by 14 percent, Clinton is favored with 43 percent with hispanics to Trump’s 29 percent.
“I’m not voting Trump, that’s for sure,” said Carla Rodriguez, 18, a half Puerto Rican and half Dominican sociology major. “He has no idea what people are going through and I hate the fact that people believe that Blacks and Latinos are the criminals and that we are animals.”
Donald Trump’s relationship with the Mexican President, Enrique Peña Nieto, has been less than friendly with Trump imposing that Nieto will pay for the proposed wall along the Southern border if elected.
