The Threat of Trump’s America

December 13, 2016

Ruben+Almaraz+and+his+son.

Photo by: Jose Orozco

Ruben Almaraz and his son.

Donald Trump is the president-elect, and will be sworn into office as the 45th president in the inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20, 2017.

Trump shocked the world and defied all polls and doubters on Nov. 8 when he won the general election in a hard and long fought campaign against Hillary Clinton.

Although the Trump family and supporters celebrated their victory, millions of Americans, including many women, undocumented immigrants and muslims were reportedly saddened and skeptical about the new Trump presidency. His victory also affected many minority and immigrant communities.

Throughout the campaign leading up to the presidential election, Trump was protested in almost every major city he visited due to his rhetoric regarding undocumented immigrants, muslims, and women.

Hundreds of protesters held signs in front of the Selland Arena in Fresno and chanted, “Dump Trump” during Trump’s visit on May 27, 2016.

In many speeches, Trump promised to build a wall between the U.S and Mexico as well as deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. Those statements lead Latinos across the nation to protest in anger, and on many occasions, violence broke out.

Since Trump’s victory, he has pledged to keep his promises regarding immigration. During his most recent interview with CBS 60 minutes, he told host Lesley Stahl that he planned to deport 2 to 3 million undocumented immigrants immediately upon taking office.

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” Trump said. “But we’re getting them out of our country; they’re here illegally.”

This statement and many like it throughout Trump’s campaign has caused a massive wave of fear among Latino communities nationwide.

Carlos Clemente, a senior at Washington Union High school and also an undocumented immigrant, says he’s scared about what’s going to happen in the next four years during the Trump Presidency.

“I’m scared for myself, and for my family,” Clemente said. “My dad brought me and my mom from Mexico when I was 4 years old; this is the only place I’ve ever known and called my home.” He said that he feels like an American.  

“He calls people like me and my family criminals and drug dealers, just because we came to America for a better life,” Clemente said. “My dad works in the fields everyday; I just want to go to college and graduate, we’re not bad people; we’re not criminals, Mr.Trump.”

Ruben Almaraz, an immigrant from Zacatecas, Mexico and father of two U.S. Marines, said that he felt very ashamed of Trump’s statement.

“I came here with nothing. I worked the fields until I became a citizen,” Almaraz said. “I gave the United States both of my children, my son and my daughter; they sent my son to war, but they want to send me back to Mexico.”

In addition to the Latino community, Trump also attacked muslims and muslim immigrants. “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” CNN reported from a campaign press release in December 2015. His comments came after the December 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attacks in which 14 people were killed and 22 were seriously injured.

Since Trump’s election, there have been a wave of hate and discrimination towards muslims, even in California and Fresno. The Nov. 28 issue of the Fresno bee reported that The Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno had received some sort of chain letter which threatened genocide against muslims and praised Donald Trump.

According to the Fresno Bee, the letter had gained national attention after it was sent to three different mosques in California as well as one in Georgia. What’s most frightening about the letter is that it says Trump will do to Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews — a very powerful statement that has many Muslim communities on edge.

Marissa Sandoval, a Fresno City college student who protested Trump in May during his visit to Fresno, said she decided to join the protest because she had friends who were Mexican, and being a Latina, she felt that Trump had not only disrespected women but all Latinos alike.

“Donald Trump is a bad man; he has no respect for women; he wants to ban all Muslims and start surveillance in their mosques; he wants to deport all undocumented immigrants,” Sandoval said. “He made it OK to disrespect women, and that’s not OK. It’s not OK for minorities to feel scared and have fear of a new president.”

The Washington Post released a video earlier this year in which Trump was recorded disrespecting women in a 2005 conversation with “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush. In the video, Trump bragged about kissing, groping and having sex with women.

The now President elect was recorded saying “Grab her [women he desires] by the p***y.” Words that have made women across the U.S. weary of the Trump presidency.

He also talked about his failed advances with an unnamed woman during the recording, just months after he had married his current wife, Melania Trump.

“I did try and f*** her. She was married,” he said. “‘And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.'”

Trump continued, “I moved on her like a b****, but I couldn’t get there. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony t**s and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”

Hillary Clinton retweeted the video along with the statement “This is horrific, we can’t allow this man to become president.”

Trump defended his actions captured on the video. “This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago,” Trump said. “I apologize if anyone was offended.”

Many women were reported to have been sexually assaulted and harassed following the release of the New York Post video.

Women all across the nation have also reported being harassed by Trump throughout the campaign and after his victory.

Prior to the video in which Trump gave those statements he has also been accused of unwanted sexual advances towards at least 17 woman, many but not all of the allegations came from Trump’s ownership of the Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss Universe pageants.

Since the early 1980s, several different media outlets have published the alleged incidents.

The New York Times reported that a woman by name of Jessica Leeds was groped by Trump  on a first-class airplane flight to New York in the early 1980s. In the second allegation, published in the Times, a woman named Rachel Crooks accuses Trump of forcibly kissing her in the Trump Tower in 2005.

Also in 2005, People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff said Trump forcibly kissed her during an interview at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, during an interview that was supposed to be about Trump’s new marriage to Melania Trump.

The Palm beach post reported that Trump had groped Mindy McGillivray’s buttocks while she assisted her friend who was a photographer working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in 2003.

Buzzfeed reported that at least five beauty pageant contestants alleged that Trump entered dressing rooms while girls ages 15-19 were changing. Donald trump owned Miss Teen USA , Miss USA, and Miss Universe from 1996 to 2015 and publicly denied those allegations.

In 1992, the Chicago Tribune published a story titled “Such a Comedian.” In the story, Trump walks up to two girls who were singing Christmas carols with a youth choir outside Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel. “He asked two of the girls how old they were,” the report reads. “After they replied they were 14, Trump said, “Wow! Just think — in a couple of years I’ll be dating you.”

Rolling Stone and the Guardian also published stories detailing different women’s accounts of unwanted sexual advances made by Trump.

In addition to immigrants, women and muslims, minorities have reported an increase in hate crimes since Trump won the candidacy, as middle class white America can finally come out of the shadows and rewind years of progress against racism. Prejudice, hate and racism is now represented at the highest levels of government with Trump as the president-elect of the U.S.

In “A wave of harassment after Trumps victory,” the New York Times reports that “hundreds of incidents of harassment and intimidation have been reported across the country since Election Day.”

The story reported that students put signs above water fountains that read “Whites only” and “colored” at First Coast High School in Jacksonville, Fla.

The same story reported that in Columbus, a man approached a Muslim woman and her family while their car was at a stop light. He hit the car and yelled at the woman, “you don’t belong in this country.”

Immediately following Trump’s victory, major cities including Oakland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York had a wave of protesters who made their way to the streets to protest Trump. The Trump tower in lower Manhattan is under heavy security following Trump’s victory which includes secret service, armed police officers, roadblocks and bag checks as a result of heavy protest in front of the tower.

KFSN-TV ABC Channel 30 in Fresno, Ca reported that even 22 days after the election, many Americans were very unhappy with the results.

They reported that thousands protested in Los Angeles, and nearly 400 people protested in Fresno.

Many Latinos say they are scared that their families might be gathered through massive raids if Trump keeps his promise of creating a deportation task force. Women are being harassed daily and feel threatened that a man with an misogynist past will soon be the chief executive of the country. Minorities are being singled out and harassed as the Trump wave takes over America, and racism is reborn once again in a country that had moved away from prejudices.

Years of progress with immigration and civil rights may be threatened under the Trump administration, but one thing is certain, many are determined to resist his divisive approach.

“It’s people like me who give birth to the soldiers they send away to fight for the rights of this country,” Almaraz said. “I hope he knows that.”

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