Several Hispanic Trump surrogates reconsider support

Several major Latino surrogates for Donald Trump are reconsidering their support for him following the Republican nominee’s hardline speech on immigration Wednesday night.



Jacob Monty, a member of Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council, quickly resigned after the speech. Another member, Ramiro Pena, a Texas pastor, said Trump's speech likely cost him the election and said he'd have to reconsider being part of a "scam." And Alfonso Aguilar, the president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, said in an interview that he is “inclined” to pull his support.

“I was a strong supporter of Donald Trump when I believed he was going to address the immigration problem realistically and compassionately,” said Monty, a Houston attorney who has aggressively made the Latino case for Trump. “What I heard today was not realistic and not compassionate.”


He withdrew from the board following Trump’s speech in Phoenix, which was heavy on calls for border security and emphasized that all immigrants in the country illegally were subject to deportation.

Pena delivered a harsh condemnation in an email to senior Trump and Republican National Committee leaders, obtained by POLITICO.

"I am so sorry but I believe Mr. Trump lost the election tonight," said Pena, a pastor at Waco's Christ the King Church. "The 'National Hispanic Advisory Council' seems to be simply for optics and I do not have the time or energy for a scam."

Pena addressed his message to Jennifer Korn, the RNC's national director for Hispanic Initiatives, along with Karen Giorno and Alan Cobb, both senior Trump advisers. Helen Aguirre Ferre and Lourdes Aguirre, both RNC Hispanic outreach officials, were copied as well.

"I will pray over the next couple of days but it is difficult to [imagine] how I can continue to associate with the Trump campaign," he wrote. "I owe my national audience an explanation."

“When we met [earlier in August] he was going to approach this issue with a realistic plan, a compassionate plan, with a plan that was not disruptive to the immigrants that were here that were not lawbreakers,” said Monty, one of the Latino leaders who met with the candidate at Trump Tower recently, a gathering at which Trump reportedly softened his tone toward undocumented immigrants already in the country. “He didn’t deliver any of that.”

Aguilar was once a Trump critic who earlier this summer set aside his qualms about Trump’s rhetoric toward Hispanic people, and organized a letter of support signed by himself and other prominent Latino conservatives. Since then, he has repeatedly defended Trump in media appearances, as has Monty. Neither plans to support Hillary Clinton.

“It’s so disappointing because we feel we took a chance, a very risky chance,” Aguilar said. “We decided to make a big U-turn to see if we could make him change. We thought we were moving in the right direction … we’re disappointed. We feel misled.”

Aguilar said he was not speaking on behalf of any organization, and hadn’t reached a final conclusion, but was deeply troubled by Trump’s address, saying that while the campaign has recently promised to deal with undocumented immigrants already living in the country in a “humane” way, “did you hear anything in that speech that was compassionate and humane? No.”

He went on to add, “I can tell you there’s a real possibility we will withdraw support from Donald Trump because of that disappointing speech.”

Despite the recent backlash, some members of the Hispanic advisory board reaffirmed their support of the Republican candidate.

Former Colorado Sen. George Rivera said he was still supporting Trump and if there was a concerted effort to retract their support, he said he "wouldn't be a part of it."

"Mr. Trump did not make this problem, it was made by past politicians," Rivera told POLITICO. "A lot of folks maybe didn't want to hear what he wanted to say."

When asked about members who have decided to stop supporting Trump, Rivera added, "that's up to them, I haven't heard of that. I wouldn't want to be a part of that."

Bianca Padro Ocasio contributed to this report.