Advocates say immigration raids are making it more difficult to contact potential Latino voters. | AP Dems fear Obama immigration raids could hurt Latino turnout Clinton and Sanders are jockeying for their votes, but the administration crackdown is hurting outreach.

Donald Trump and his incendiary immigration rhetoric was supposed to send Latino voters to the polls in droves for Democrats this fall. But the Obama administration’s controversial immigration raids are threatening to weaken the Democrats’ advantage.

The volatile issue of immigration and the power of the Latino vote is coming into sharper focus in advance of the June 7 primary in California, where Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are showing off their pro-immigrant bona fides in their increasingly contentious nomination fight.


But a running undercurrent is the firestorm over the raids launched by the Obama administration earlier this year and reportedly renewed this month targeting immigrants here illegally. Advocacy groups say they’re concerned that enthusiasm from Latino voters and volunteers is getting sapped because of the furor stemming from the controversial enforcement operations.

“People are fatigued and outraged about the raids, and just when things should be turning to creating clean lines between the candidates, the Obama administration is dampening enthusiasm,” said Cristina Jimenez, the co-founder and managing director of United We Dream, a leading advocacy group led by young undocumented immigrants.

She added that the raids are “definitely making it harder for United We Dream Action and other groups engaging in Latino and immigrant voters.”

Motivated by a presumptive GOP nominee who has promised to expel the more than 11 million immigrants here illegally and erect an impenetrable wall along the southern border, Latino interest in this fall’s presidential elections have been more intense than ever. Donald Trump has a staggeringly high unfavorable rating among Hispanics, and the launch of his presidential campaign last summer was marked by controversial comments toward Mexican immigrants.

Immigrants are also becoming naturalized at much more rapid rates. Statistics released last week from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services show more than 250,000 immigrants have applied to become naturalized in the first three months of this year. That’s a 28 percent boost from the applications submitted during the same period in 2015.

“People are becoming citizens because they want to vote against Donald Trump,” said Ben Monterroso, the executive director of Mi Familia Vota, a Latino civic engagement group.

But on the ground, advocates say that the raids are making it more difficult to contact potential Latino voters. Though immigration enforcement officials may be targeting a relatively narrow swath of people, other immigrants can get swept up during the process, advocates say.

That means immigrants are increasingly afraid of opening the door and interacting with strangers — throwing more hurdles in voter outreach efforts. This is particularly an issue with mixed-status families, when one person could be a U.S. citizen and eligible to vote while others are here illegally.

“There is a hope that at the very least, people will come out and vote against Trump,” said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the NILC Immigrant Justice Fund, an affiliate of the California-based National Immigration Law Center. “One of the questions and concerns is, does the fear and confusion of the raids result in suppressing the vote so much that people are unsure about coming forward?”

Monterroso pointed to another obstacle in outreach efforts caused by the raids.

“Volunteers that are doing the best work to talk to the voters is where I see the disappointment and frustration,” he said.

The administration has so far declined to confirm specifics about the latest round of raids, which were disclosed in a Reuters report this month. According to a document obtained by the news agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have told agents across the country to prepare for a 30-day “surge” of arrests targeting mothers and children who have recently arrived in the country illegally but have been told to return to their home countries.

The latest operations follow the two-day raids that occurred in January — a strategy so aggressive that Trump took credit for the idea when news of it broke.

“It defies political logic that the administration would do anything to weaken Hispanic support for the Democratic nominee,” said Kevin Appleby, the international migration policy director for the Center for Migration Studies, a Catholic-based institute and think tank.

The raids in January were targeted toward North Carolina, Texas and Georgia, but there has been scant confirmation this time around about where the operations will be concentrated. The Obama administration has focused on deporting immigrants who arrived here illegally after January 2014 and have also exhausted all legal grounds for being able to stay.

Lawyers working at two detention facilities in Texas say they’ve met with 16 families from Central America who have been detained since the latest raids were disclosed. They have come primarily from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas, according to the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project.

“As we have stated repeatedly, the Department of Homeland Security must enforce the law consistent with our enforcement priorities,” ICE spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea said Friday. “Our highest priority is public safety and border security.”

Shortly after the raids were disclosed this month, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said "this administration is serious about enforcing the law."

"I recognize that our political opponents don't like to acknowledge that fact," Earnest said. "But we've made clear how we're going to use law enforcement resources to enhance or border security and to enhance the security of communities across the country.”

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said he believed the raids were being leaked now to deter a significant surge of Central American immigrants at the southern border this summer — which could spiral into a broader humanitarian and political problem for Democrats, like the border crisis that erupted in 2014.

The number of women and children being apprehended at the southern border plummeted dramatically in January — soon after the Obama administration announced the raids. But since then, the figures have been ticking upward.

“Why would you announce raids that are not really numerically not significant? Why such a focus? Because the news goes from here to the press conferences, straight to the homes of the Salvadorans, the Guatemalans,” Gutierrez said. “Here’s the problem. It’s not going to work.”

Both Clinton and Sanders strongly condemned the latest round of deportation raids almost immediately after they were revealed. Sanders denounced what he called the “painful and inhumane business of locking up and deporting families who have fled horrendous violence in Central America and other countries.” He pushed President Barack Obama to grant temporary protected status to immigrants coming from that region.

Clinton, meanwhile, detailed her opposition to “large scale raids that tear families apart and sow fear in communities” while stressing the need for proper legal counsel, especially for minors.

The two are running close in California polling. Numbers released May 25 from the Public Policy Institute of California showed Clinton up by just 2 percentage points over Sanders in the June 7 contest, although other primaries held that day are sure to put Clinton over the top in terms of delegates.

There are about 4.1 million registered Latino voters in California, which is nearly one out of every four voters in the state, according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

“There is always the concern that what this administration does could potentially affect participation and turnout,” said Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “But I think if it does, I think it would be very minimal.”