Why Trump’s immigration rhetoric appeals to one first-time Latino voter in Minnesota
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Tomas Useche says his departure from Venezuela at age 7 seemed to come out of nowhere.
It was 2010 and his father, who owned a money exchange business, suddenly found himself in disfavor with the Venezuelan government. They left in a matter of days and flew to Florida.
“My half sister lived down in Orlando. We were just told, ‘Hey, we’re going to go to Disney for a couple of days,’” he recalled.
But this wasn’t just a quick visit to the Magic Kingdom. His family was fleeing Venezuela, permanently.
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“I remember the first day I got signed up for school, and then that’s when I kind of realized, ‘I don’t think we’re going back anytime soon,” said Useche, now 21 and a senior studying political science at St. Olaf College in Northfield.
This turning point in Useche’s life was essential to his decision to vote for President-elect Donald Trump this year, the first presidential election in which he was eligible to vote. Though he currently lives in Minnesota, Useche voted absentee in Florida.
Useche’s story is a window into a notable trend in the 2024 election: Trump made inroads among Latino voters, a group that has traditionally favored Democrats. He had particularly strong appeal among Latino men.
‘A stab in the back’
Useche says his family’s experience becoming U.S. citizens fuels his views on immigration. His family moved to the United States legally and he’s frustrated by illegal immigration.
“We waited at our turn; we filed for our papers,” he said.
He says his parents were able to stay in Orlando on work visas and soon secured green cards. Eventually they became citizens.
“When you see other people just kind of skipping all those steps, being gifted all these resources that we never had access to, it just kind of seems like a stab in the back to us,” he said.
Useche likes that Trump wants to crack down on illegal immigration; he hopes Trump also makes the process for legal immigration more efficient.
And even though he bristles at some of Trump’s harsh rhetoric about immigrants, Useche isn’t put off by all Trump’s statements. Trump has frequently referred to migrants as criminals and suggested migrants who have committed murder are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
“He’s not referring to everyone being a criminal. But obviously… Venezuela had one of the highest crime rates in the world. Sure, there could be a lot of them that are great people [coming here illegally],” he said. “But there are going to be a lot of people who could be criminals.”
It’s a message that resonates with Useche’s family, but also many others he knows in Florida, where there are large communities of Latino voters.
He points to Miami-Dade County, a place that is home to large Cuban and Venezuelan populations and that has favored Democrats previously. This year, it backed Trump with help from voters in heavily Latino neighborhoods.
“A lot of these people are thinking the same thing. It’s like, ‘Hey, we feel kind of betrayed by everything that’s happening.’ And they’re angry,” he said.
Economic struggles
Trump’s promise to improve the economy also resonates with Useche. He’s about to graduate, and he’s worried about money and student loan debt.
He’s also seen his parents — both engineers by training — work beneath their educational status for years. His dad is now 80, and his mother is the only parent working. She’s held jobs in retail and as a crossing guard.
“She’s barely able to pay for my school. I try to help whenever I can, obviously, but then also being able to put food on the table for my dad, but back at home. Things have gotten really expensive,” he said.
But aside from these policy issues, Useche said he's felt alienated by how Democrats talk about people who support Trump. He says their comments have overlooked complicated personal histories like his and their rhetoric feels condescending.
It’s a theme he sometimes hears among his peers on campus, too.
"If you’re not voting for Kamala [you get labeled as] as a complete fascist, racist, xenophobe, homophobe, all the things,” he said. “But they don’t want to listen to you. It’s basically, if you’re not with them, then you’re kind of against them.”
On election night, Useche joined his fellow College Republicans at the state GOP election watch party. But he left early to study for a French test.
Back on campus in the middle of the night he heard Trump had won Pennsylvania and took a moment to celebrate. And then he got back to studying.