OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Latino voters in border states made it clear this week that they are leaving the Democratic Party because their views are more aligned with Republicans going into November’s midterms.
An MSNBC reporter interviewed several Hispanics in Arizona and Texas about the upcoming election and which issues are most important to them. Several of the voters said they were moving away from the Democratic Party, with some saying they identified more with the values of the Republican Party.
One Texas voter told the former Telemundo anchor that the party “has changed a lot” and she now identifies more with the Republican Party’s values.
“We’re for God, country, family, and hard work,” Maria Batres told the MSNBC host.
Fellow Texas voter Jose Arreola told the network that he also became a Republican because he was most concerned about immigration and “beefing up border security,” adding, “The fact of the matter is, we don’t feel safe anymore.”
The MSNBC reporter found that Latinos, like the rest of the electorate, were most concerned about inflation: “But our [NBC/Telemundo] poll found the top issue for Latinos was cost of living.”
That poll also found abortion ranked 7th place in the list of priorities for Latino voters, trailing behind “threats to democracy,” “jobs and the economy” and “immigration and the situation at the border.”
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Two lifelong Democrats recently announced they will be running for re-election as Republicans, in part, because of the worsening border crisis under Biden.
Terrell County Judge Dale Carruthers and Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara — two females in Texas border communities — voiced frustration with Biden’s border policies destroying their small communities.
“The single reason they switched parties, they say, is because the Biden administration’s policies led to more than 2 million people coming through the southern border from over 150 countries. The costs of crime stemming from an open border – increased trafficking and smuggling of people, weapons, and guns – to their communities has prompted them to say, “enough is enough” and do something about it,” Blankley wrote.
Carruthers said, “I come from a Hispanic heritage, which was prominently Democrat. The chaos at the border and everything that’s been going on make me realize that I needed to switch parties. I am very happy to be a Republican and to represent this great state of Texas as a judge.”
“I’ve been a Democrat since 1992,” Guevara said. “I’ve always run as a Democrat and this is my first year to run as a Republican. I’m very grateful for Gov. Abbott for all he has done for Texas and continues to do for Texas, especially with our border crisis.”
Late last month, a retired Border Patrol agent announced she left the Democrat Party over the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
During an interview Monday on “Fox & Friends First,” retired CBP officer Rosa Arellano explained that the policies of the Biden administration worsened border security compared to policies in place under the Trump administration.
Arellano said former President Donald Trump inspired her to switch parties, explaining how he listened to the concerns of border agents.
“He was the first president in a long time that I recall actually came down to the border,” Arellano said on Fox News.
“When he came down, and he spoke to the subject-matter experts of Border Patrol and us, the CBP officers, he listened to us,” Arellano, who lives in Texas along the border, said.
“He listened to us letting him know that we needed a multi-layer solution to this situation. And we mentioned that we needed physical barriers, strategic locations, we needed better infrastructure, we needed more boots on the ground, and better technology. He listened to us, and he pointed it out to the country,” she said.
Arellano said it is “pure hypocrisy” from Democrats for calling the bussing of migrants a crisis when border communities are overwhelmed on a daily basis.
Arellano suggested Democrats go to the border to witness the crisis firsthand.
“If they come down and they check out what’s going on, they would be baffled. We have our small border town which is just about 30,000-35,000. It’s ridiculous that we’re getting illegals entering our area at a rate of about a thousand a day.”
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