I’ve spent a great deal of time in Venezuela and Mexico, for both personal and professional reasons. At the peak of that time, my Spanish was more than passable. As the years have gone by, sadly, I am losing the language. Knowing that, I try to engage with Spanish speakers here in the U.S. as often as possible.
Recently, while visiting a friend in Florida, I took a break to walk around their gated community. As I did, I came across what turned out to be a family from Mexico: a mother, father and their 16-year-old daughter.
As I walked up to them, I asked in Spanish if they spoke Spanish. The man politely answered, “Yes.” When I next asked where they were from, the woman quietly answered “Mexico.” Just as she did, I noticed their daughter backing away from me, with tears welling up in her eyes. In less than a minute, she was sobbing uncontrollably.
I have been told more than once — most often by my wife — that because of my size and demeanor, I can come across as “imposing,” often looking more “law enforcement” than not. That is precisely what happened that morning. The young daughter of the couple from Mexico, who were painting houses in the community to make a living, instantly assumed I was from ICE and was there to take away her mother and father. She was terrified, and I was heartbroken.
Anyone who reads my pieces on this site on a regular basis knows that I strongly support the policies of President Trump. I also believe it is critical to the welfare of the nation that Vice President JD Vance succeeds him in the Oval Office — an outcome that will be in the hands of the American people.
As we have witnessed over the last few presidential elections, out of tens of millions of votes cast, the outcome often comes down to less than 100,000 votes. The flipping of just a sliver of 1 percent of the vote in certain districts, counties and states can determine the next president.
With that reality in mind — and in combination with my own haunting experience in Florida — I have heard from several highly experienced Hispanic American political operatives who believe that the immigration issue is now turning against Republicans, in such a way that many of those slivers of 1 percent of the vote are being flipped back to the Democrats.
Cliches become cliches because they are often mostly true. One of the most well-known in political circles is that “perception is reality in politics.” To be sure, tens of millions of Americans strongly support the president locking down the southern border, just as they support rounding up dangerous criminals allowed into our nation by the failed policies of the past administration. While Trump has successfully closed the border and arrested thousands of the violent criminals who entered our country illegally, there is a perception problem growing for the Republican Party as operations continue.
To be clear, I consider the men and women of ICE to be courageous and heroic law enforcement officials doing their best to protect our nation. That said, there is also no doubt that the Democrats are cutting campaign ads featuring “crying children” and “moms and dads” being arrested at their place of employment and then dragged into custody.
Will such ads convince the majority of Americans to turn against the president and vice president on this issue? Not even close. Will they convince some? Quite possibly.
One of the Hispanic American political operatives who I spoke with, who is a fan of White House border czar Tom Homan, suggested that one way to stop the bleeding on this issue would be to replace Homan with a highly decorated Hispanic American law enforcement officer.
Another strategy would be to invite the top Hispanic American leaders in the country who support the president on this issue to the White House for a symposium on the topic. The symposium could be hosted by someone like Rachel Campos-Duffy from Fox News, with snippets of the greater discussion sent to Spanish-speaking media outlets around the nation.
The bottom line is that the president and the administration can have 90 percent of the American public on their side regarding immigration and still lose the upcoming elections. What I witnessed in Florida confirms to me there this is an issue that must be addressed before 2026 and 2028.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.
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