Why this Hispanic and Muslim immigrant couple voted for Trump

Armando and Telly Simón, The Federalist

I’m an immigrant. I’m a woman. I’m a Muslim. And I voted for Trump. My husband is Hispanic, and an immigrant, and he voted for Trump. Stop ignoring us.

Editor’s note: The two essays below are written by a husband and wife. We’ve indicated who wrote which portion directly above each essay.

Telly Simon

The social media world is exploding with comments from Hollywood celebrities condemning America for being so racist and misogynistic as to elect Donald Trump for president. Well, I’m an immigrant. I’m a woman. I’m a Muslim. And I voted for Trump.

I know this went against the dictate of mainstream media and I apologize and truly beg the forgiveness of those journalists for having a different viewpoint from theirs, but here are my reasons.

No, he’s not anti-immigrant as he’s been portrayed, nor anti-Hispanic. He wants immigrants to respect our laws. How can you not understand something so simple? It took me a long time and effort to navigate the path to residency and citizenship. And a bunch of whining Mexicans, Hondurans, and Salvadorans want to jump in front of the line just because they’re being encouraged by liberals?

Yes, build the wall to keep out the illegals, the criminals, the drugs. That’s not racism, that’s common sense. But I guess that makes me a racist. My husband, too. He’s Hispanic and a legal immigrant. He’s a racist, too. I guess. But let me ask you: have you ever been in a long, long line to get in somewhere and some jerk cuts in in front of everyone and gets in? Of course you have. Didn’t you feel infuriated? And what if he did without even paying?

Trump also wants to stop immigration from Muslim countries that are hotbeds of terrorism since most of the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil have been from those countries. How can you not understand something so simple? That’s racism? I don’t think so. It’s just common sense. But I suppose that also makes me a racist. Deplorable me.

Hopefully, he’s going to force those traitorous CEOs who move companies overseas (and who would sell their daughters into prostitution for a buck) to bring back the companies they exported. Go to Walmart and try to find items still made in America. I dare you. No wonder they didn’t contribute to his campaign. He couldn’t be bought. Unlike Hillary.

So instead of focusing on his policies, the networks focused on his vulgar, sexist remarks of 11 years ago. They were shocked—yes, shocked! Well, I have news for these prissy types: at one time or another all men have said similar things. Any man who denies it is lying. The feminists are shocked—yes, shocked!—at his obscene remarks, while ignoring Bill Clinton’s victims. Seriously? Give me a break.

Before Obamacare, I had free health care through my job. After Obamacare, I had to pay $1,200 a year. Now, it has increased another $600. My old doctor is now excluded and my children’s dentists are also excluded. What about next year?

Then, there’s Hillary. Even Democrats will admit that she’s a pathological liar whose primary achievements while in office were to (1) evade prosecution and (2) become fabulously rich through the Clinton Foundation and bribes—I mean, speaking engagements ($240,000 for a speech? Really?). She claimed to want to bring people together, not divide them, then called everyone who wouldn’t vote for her a racist.

She wanted to implement the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will finish turning American into a Third World slum. And her husband is a serial rapist. When they last left the White House they stole $192,000 worth of items. They were caught, fined, and ordered to return those items. Then, when she left the State Department, she again stole furniture and took it to her home. If she had been elected, I wonder how much they would have stolen this time around. The Clintons are a cancer of greed.

One other disturbing matter: there’s something fundamentally anti-democratic about Hillary’s fanatic followers: firebombing Republican headquarters, ripping up Trump signs, assaulting people who went to Trump rallies, preventing political rallies from being held, suppressing articles from being published. Many in the media were very upset that Trump brought up this issue, pretending it was a fantasy. It’s a fantasy only if one is ignorant of history, the 1960 election, ACORN, and other elections where cemetery residents were enrolled in voting (say, why do dead people always vote Democrat?).

Trump was backstabbed so many times by the Republican establishment that his back looks like a pin cushion. Wall Street hates him. The media hates him. The corrupt political establishment hates him. Corporate America hates him. The heroine-shooting Hollywood celebrities hate him. That alone was a good reason to vote for him.

How About That—We Do Exist After All

Armando Simón

For years, there was a concerted effort to declare open borders and grant amnesty to illegal immigrants, the majority of them being Mexicans. A vast propaganda campaign began in the media, from the Wall Street Journal to NPR to The New York Times to all of the network news. Any news involving crime by illegal immigrants was suppressed. Instead, the focus of news stories invariably involved whining women and their children for whom we were supposed to be feeling sorry.

In addition, pro-immigrant Hispanics were vocal in their advocacy, giving the impression that all Hispanics were thinking 24/7 about the subject and were, of course, in favor of amnesty and open borders. They also gave the impression that they spoke for all Hispanics.

I attempted to have an essay published entitled “We Don’t Exist” in various national magazines and national newspapers of different political viewpoints. None would touch it. In that essay, I wrote that there was a concerted effort at propaganda in television and print media; that the message in the propaganda was that all Hispanics inside the United States were in favor of illegal immigration and mass amnesty, obsessing about it 24/7.

I also pointed out the fatuous arguments for open immigration, like immigrants only take jobs that Americans don’t want, they pay taxes, illegal immigration is an ethnic issue, and those who oppose a borderless policy are anti-Hispanic racists. I proclaimed that a lot of Hispanics did not conform to this mold. Although all spoke Spanish, there are vast differences between Mexicans, Cubans, Colombians, Spaniards, Peruvians: for example, we do not all eat tacos and tamales. In fact, most of us use knives and forks.

Yet in every discussion of the issue we dissenters were deliberately ignored. In any panel discussion, whether on television or NPR, to listen to the participants discussing “immigration reform” (translation: do away with border enforcement and enact immediate mass amnesty), it was like listening to a chorus of echoes. To those who pushed this propaganda—and it was and is propaganda—we Hispanics who did not adhere to the party line did not exist.

In every discussion of immigration we dissenters were deliberately ignored.

Aside from the fact that these S.O.B.s were proclaiming that they did not have to obey our laws, there was something else, a visceral response to their snarling demands: have you ever been in a long line to get in a theater and some person cuts in front and gets in? You remember how that felt? And they didn’t even pay? Well, that’s how many legal immigrants feel—incensed.

Then along came Trump, who let loose with a broadside against illegal immigrants and a promise to build a wall on the Mexican border. Then the abuse and insults by the chattering class started to pour in. It seemed as if every journalist was lining up to throw an insult Trump’s way and deliberately misrepresenting what he said. Every photograph of him showed him grimacing.

Then Trump additionally said that, to minimize future terrorist attacks in this country, Muslims from certain countries would be barred from entering, whereupon the vituperation got even more intense. NBC News had a section where Tom Brokaw cited the Nazis, Japanese internment, Joseph McCarthy, and the Holocaust. If he did not cite the potato famine and yellow fever it was probably due to an oversight (and mind you, this piece of propaganda was during a news program). At no point was the fact brought up that almost every terrorist act by Muslims in America had come from Muslim immigrants—from Chechnya, Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Somalia.

Throughout the campaign were the glorified “activists” disrupting Trump’s speeches, all the while claiming to speak for all Hispanics. Trying to convince, or even speak, to these “activists” and their journalist fans was like getting on top of their heads with a jackhammer to get them to see a different viewpoint, listen to logic, or consider undeniable facts. Nothing. Nothing penetrated their politically correct skulls. Such is the nature of blinding fanaticism.

It seemed as if every journalist was lining up to throw an insult Trump’s way and deliberately misrepresenting what he said.

The Nevada primary came in and Trump won, with the majority of Hispanics voting for him. How about that. And Florida, which is full of Hispanics? Likewise.

I bought a pro-Trump shirt (“Finally somebody with balls!”) and I was amazed at how many Hispanics bumped fists with me. One told me he was making a T-shirt that read, “Con Trump si se puede” (and if you don’t understand the irony in that, it shows how disconnected you are).

I tried to communicate with the pundits, the “impartial” journalists who talked only to other “impartial” journalists, even the stupid old fossils that make up the decrepit leadership of the RNC. Nothing. That jackhammer just didn’t work. They were not interested in talking to anyone who was not a lobbyist, a Hollywood celebrity, or another “impartial” journalist. Certainly not somebody from flyover country.

As Trump’s candidacy gathered steam, one could glimpse more and more signs in his overflowing rallies that read “Hispanics for Trump.” The news networks never interviewed these individuals, just like they never interviewed blacks in favor of Trump, though you could see such folks on YouTube. Then, in the actual election, Trump won states that had a heavy Hispanic population, like Florida and Texas. In fact, he received more Hispanic votes (and black votes!) than Mitt Romney did in 2012. This contradicted the widely touted Hispanic tsunami that was supposedly going to drown Trump. So how about that: we do exist after all.

Now build that wall.

Armando Simón lives in San Antonio and is the author of “A Cuban from Kansas” and “The Only Red Star I Liked Was a Starfish.” Telly Simon is a native from Indonesia and has co-authored a book of humorous short stories with her husband, “Indonesians: Tales from Parahiyangan.”