‘Fuera!’ Latinos protest against Trump in battleground Pennsylvania city

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania - The chants on Oct 29 in the largely Hispanic Pennsylvania city of Allentown came from a small but proud and passionate group of protesters outside Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s latest campaign rally: “Immigrants make America great!”

The refrain – a play on Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan – along with calls of “Trump, fuera!” (which means “Trump, go away!” in Spanish) reflect mounting anger among Latinos, in particular those from Puerto Rico, after a comedian who spoke at last weekend’s Trump rally in New York likened the US island territory to a pile of garbage.

“Latinos are very disgusted by this,” said 60-year-old clerk Ivet Figueroa, who was raised in working-class Allentown by Puerto Rican parents, as some 50 protesters gathered near the long line of Trump supporters waiting to enter the arena for the former president’s speech.

“We are citizens, and he’s referring to us that way?” she added. “How dare him!”

The shock remarks at Oct 27’s Madison Square Garden rally from a comic who called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage” have reverberated across the American voter landscape with just a week before election day on Nov 5.

And in a race going down to the wire, the biggest battleground state of all is a toss-up, polls show. A shift of just a few thousand votes could tilt Pennsylvania either to Vice-President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris or Trump.

Which makes comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s remarks all the more startling.

They have galvanised Puerto Rican voters – not those on the island, who cannot vote in US presidential elections, but the million-plus so-called Boricuas who reside in the country’s 50 states, notably the seven battleground states likely to determine the result of the race between Trump and Ms Harris.

Pennsylvania is home to more than 400,000 Puerto Ricans, and get-out-the-vote organisers said they already see evidence that the controversy is turning Latinos against the former president, even as Trump claims he has been making inroads with the traditionally Democratic-leaning bloc.

“We have heard people actually changing their minds, who are Republicans and now because of this are going to vote for Kamala,” said Mr Armando Jimenez, a deputy organising director for Make the Road Action Pennsylvania.

The Oct 29 protest was not the flashpoint it could have been.

Many Puerto Ricans stayed home out of fear or nerves, and road closures suppressed the protest attendance, Mr Jimenez argued. It was also a weekday, when people were at work.

But the demonstration – with Trump supporters occasionally trying to shout down protesters as they marched towards the venue – highlighted the potential influence of a scorned voter demographic.

“We’re the largest-growing voting bloc in the whole country, so anything can really sway the election if we continue to be attacked,” Mr Jimenez said.

For Puerto Rican Michelle Fernandez, a devout Trump supporter standing in line at the rally, the comedian’s remarks were water off a duck’s back.

“It didn’t touch a nerve with me,” the 54-year-old told AFP alongside her husband, both of whom held “Boricuas con Trump” placards, explaining that the remark “didn’t come out of Trump’s mouth”.

“The comment was ugly, but the comment is not the deciding choice for me,” said Ms Fernandez, a private sector worker.

More important to her are undocumented immigration, crime, and the US economy. And while she is more than ready to see a woman win the White House, Ms Harris “has shown no leadership at all in my eyes”.

As Garbage-gate raged, Trump allies warmed up the arena crowd before the headliner arrived. They included Puerto Ricans like Mr Tim Ramos, a former mayoral candidate in Allentown.

The current mayor, Democrat Matthew Tuerk, was outside at the protest, venting over Hinchcliffe’s garbage remark.

“It’s an insult to the people here in Allentown!” he told dozens of protesters.

“They’re making a closing argument of grievances, about ‘the enemy within’,” he said, paraphrasing Trump’s provocative words about Americans he perceives as evil. “You know who he means? Us. He’s talking about us.”

Nearby, a lone man held up a sign that read “Make Racism Shameful Again”.

Ms Figueroa, the Allentown native, held her own handmade sign featuring an image of a garbage can.

“Nov 5 is trash day,” the sign read. “Let’s put you where you belong.” AFP