A group of prominent Latinos wants communities across the country to fight back against what it calls anti-immigrant fear mongering of the 2016 Republican presidential candidates.
Twenty-three notable Latinos—including legendary community organizer Dolores Huerta, and entertainers America Ferrera, Carlos Santana and Zoe Saldana—partnered with People for the American Way to publish an open letter that calls out the candidates and the party at large. They also urge readers to vote for candidates who actually earn their support.
Key passages:
In this year’s 2016 Republican presidential primary, the candidates crossed a line. In trying to win the nomination, every one of the leading candidates dug themselves into a deep hole pandering to the anti-immigrant base of the Republican Party that idolizes Donald Trump.
There’s no coming back from this. We’ve seen clearly that all the leading Republican candidates have sided with the far-right at the expense of the Latino community. They’re capitalizing on negative stereotypes and inaccurate information about our community in order to win votes from the GOP base. …
Our communities have the power to decide who wins in the 2016 election. We hope that power is used to vote for candidates who support our community, share our values, and will fight for working families. Neither Trump nor any of his fellow Republican candidates meet that standard.
Here is the full list of signees:
Yancey Arias
Esteban Benito
Benjamin Bratt
Peter Bratt
Raúl Castillo
Ivonne Coll
Wilson Cruz
Giselle Fernandez
America Ferrera
Mike Gomez
Lisa Guerrero
Dolores Huerta
Eva LaRue
George Lopez
Rick Najera
José-Luis Orozco
Aubrey Plaza
Steven Michael Quezada
Judy Reyes
Zoe Saldana
Miguel Sandoval
Carlos Santana
Lauren Vélez