Trump speaks to antiimmigration group in Houston.
Houston immigration opponents say GOP candidate is only one listening
Inside the tony Houston Omni Hotel at Westside, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump found a friendly audience Saturday as he promised “help is coming” to an anti-illegal-immigration group gathered to hear him speak on his signature cause.
“The politicians ignore your cries for help, but I never will,” Trump vowed to thunderous applause at a luncheon for The Remembrance Project, a grass-roots organization that draws attention to those killed by people in the country without documentation and who see a champion in Trump.
“Not one more American life should be given up in the name of open borders,” the candidate said at the event that was at first open to the public and press and then, last week, abruptly closed. His remarks were, however, streamed live on YouTube.
It was outside the hotel where the lines of contention were quick- ly drawn in the few feet of concrete driveway that separated 20 or so angry Trump protesters from the equally vocal and enraged Trump supporters. When not taunting one another, they worked for nearly three hours in a scorching midday sun to win the hearts and horns of passing motorists with their chants and signs.
“Racist, Sexist Anti-Gay; Donald
Trump Go Away,” the protesters called through a bullhorn.
“Mexico, Mexico, how many people have you killed today?” came a response from the Trump supporters, several holding American flags.
They also turned on one another directly at times. But it was only insults that were hurled on Saturday rather than fists, unlike at some Trump events across the nation where physical violence has erupted between protesters and supporters.
“Nazi!” one Trump protester shouted across the hotel driveway.
“Communist” a supporter yelled back. Police out in force
Houston Police were out in force both inside and outside the Omni. Alex Thompson, a 27-year-old reporter for Vice, an HBO news program, was arrested on suspicion of trespassing by Houston police and held in jail after asking about press access to the event. The Trump campaign issued a statement late in the afternoon saying it was not aware or involved in detaining the reporter, who once worked for New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.
And at one point, officers moved in when Marcel McClinton, a 15-yearold wearing a Trump T-shirt, and another Trump supporter crossed over to the protest side.
McClinton, a Stratford High School student, said he simply wanted to ask a protester about his catcall that Trump was a racist. He said he was cursed at and called names by a protester.
Police said they set up barricades to keep the groups separate.
Meanwhile, Trump told the luncheon crowd he had been moved by the plight of the Remembrance families and that theirs, unlike other causes, were a “lonely fight for justice.”
He spoke for 17 minutes, reading from a teleprompter.
Trump was introduced by Maria Espinoza, national director of the Houstonbased The Remembrance Project, who said he was the only presidential candidate who responded to the group’s request to meet and listen to their stories.
“There is only one candidate who spoke the truth,” Espinoza said. “There is only one candidate who reached out to our families, the stolen lives families — Americas most forgotten families.”
Some of those gathered at the group’s first luncheon wore T-shirts with the pictures of a slain loved one. Most wore large Trump campaign buttons.
“The most fundamental duty of government is to protect American lives,” Trump said. “Anyone who fails to understand this is not fit to hold public office.”
The most vigorous applause came after he vowed to stop officials in so-called sanctuary cities from declining to cooperate with federal immigration agencies.
“What do you tell the wife who has lost her husband because a sanctuary city released an illegal immigrant from behind bars?” Trump asked the crowd. “It has to end. It will end. If I become president, I promise you, it will end.” ‘I’m afraid if he wins’
Victor Ibarra, a 47-yearold undocumented immigrant from Mexico who owns his own carpet- cleaning service and pays taxes, stood in the grass outside the hotel and said Trump does not understand the whole story of America’s undocumented.
“I’ve been living here a long time, and I’m not a criminal. He says that people from Mexico are criminals. Americans commit more crimes than undocumented workers,” Ibarra said, holding a 3-foot piñata he made in Trump’s likeness, including devil’s horns. “We’re here to tell Donald Trump that we don’t want him in Houston.”
Ibarra said he came to the United States 22 years ago and has been on a waiting list for a resident visa for 15 years. “I’m afraid if he wins,” he said.
A few feet away, John Coronado, 54, a teacher at a small technical college, held a sign that read: “Latinos for Trump.” A third-generation Mexican-American, he said he is mostly angry with those who come into the country illegally and then demand to stay.
But he said he admires and has “all the respect in the world” for those like Ibarra who are trying to gain legal status through proper channels. He discards the position that Trump occasionally takes to force all undocumented immigrants out of the country.
Texas in general and Houston, a widely diverse city of immigrants, in particular remains torn on the issue. A Texas Lyceum annual poll released Wednesday showed that for the fifth consecutive year, immigration and border security are top issues. ‘They need to go back’
A majority of Texas adults, 59 percent, said in the poll they opposed a wall between the United States and Mexico that Trump has famously touted. But that figure dropped to 48 percent when the poll considered likely voters.
Patricia Morlen, of Huffman, and her husband each paid $240 a plate for the Saturday luncheon, and she walked away impressed with Trump even though she had initially been a U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz supporter. In June she was severely injured when her car was hit by an undocumented man from El Salvador, she said.
She suffered a broken clavicle and five broken ribs, she said. She is angry because she believes the man simply got a ticket but was not deported.
“When the illegal aliens commit a crime, they need to go back,” she said.