Latino voters in California and New Jersey want their voices heard: “We need to speak up”

In the tight-knit Latino neighbourhoods of Bell Gardens, California, everyday life has shifted dramatically. Since endless waves of ICE raids came the norm across Southern California, people have grown used to living under constant threat from Trump’s troops.

Families now travel to the grocery store or church with passports in their pockets, even when they’re native American citizens - ICE are targeting people because of their skin colour, with no justification needed for throwing them to the floor and taking them away in black vans.

For residents like 42-year-old Alo Hurtado, who spoke to The New York Times, the raids have turned fear into action. “Especially here in California,” he said, “we need to speak up.” When California’s special election arrived, Hurtado chose not to mail in his ballot, worried it might be tampered with. Instead, he brought his parents to vote in person.

Across the country, that sentiment is echoing through Latino communities facing similar levels of anxiety in their daily lives. The Trump administration’s reckless and racist immigration sweeps have cast a long shadow over this week’s elections in California, New Jersey and other states. Civil rights groups fear that both the raids and the presence of ICE agents that patrol the streets looking for black and brown people could discourage Latino turnout. Yet, for many, anger has become a powerful motivator rather than a deterrent.

In Virginia, Carlos Castro, a Salvadoran-born supermarket owner, described the raids as “something we feel morning and night,” adding that it “stirs a lot of sadness.”

He and others say the federal crackdown reminds them of the authoritarian tactics they fled in Latin America: “A lot of Latin American folks have come here because they have seen their countries go authoritarian — their rights were slowly eroded. Now, many are “seeing shades of that happening here.”

Back in New Jersey, however, the tone is more defiant than fearful. Passaic’s mayor, Hector Lora, insists his constituents will not be intimidated by federal observers. “We’re Jersey,” he said. “We will make it to the polls. We will cast our votes. And we will have our voice.”

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The tension in Trump’s America isn’t going away, but he wouldn’t know that. While food tokens were removed from the grasp of millions of working people overnight, he was at his private Mar-a-lago clubhouse watching dancing girls and eating lobster. A true man of the people.

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