Raul A. Reyes

Opinion columnist

This weekend, a young man with a powerful rifle confirmed what many Hispanics have known for a little over two years now: It is open season on Latinos in the United States. The 21-year-old turned a Walmart in El Paso into a horrific scene of injury and death, with at least 22 people killed and 24 wounded. "This Anglo man came here to kill Hispanics," El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles wrote on his personal Facebook page.

In a manifesto that local police attribute to the gunman, posted online minutes before the shootings, he warned of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and railed against immigrants.

This brand of rhetoric should be familiar to all Americans, as we have heard a steady stream of such bigoted bile since the day that Donald Trump announced his run for the presidency. Trump has rarely missed an opportunity to denigrate or demonize Latinos and immigrants, and now El Pasoans have paid the deadly price. The truth is that there is a clear link between the racist in chief and the loss of lives at the Cielo Vista Walmart.

Hispanics in his sights from Day One

Our president began his run for the White House by calling Mexicans drug dealers and “rapists.” He has disparaged a distinguished Mexican-American judge because of his heritage and treated prominent Hispanic journalists with disrespect. He has spoken of illegal immigration in terms of infestation and invasion. At a May rally in Florida, he laughed off a supporter’s suggestion that violence was the way to deal with unauthorized migrants.

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It shouldn’t be a surprise that one of Trump’s supporters decided to target El Paso, a city that is about 80% Latino. Due to the ongoing influx of Central American migrants, the city has also become a symbol of our dysfunctional immigration system. Trump likes to paint the borderlands as dangerous and out of control, yet it is he is who brought the area kids in cages, family separations, tent cities — and one of the deadliest gun rampages in modern U.S. history.

There is still much that we do not know about the El Paso shooter. However, it is no secret that white nationalists have been emboldened under Trump. His defense of "very fine people" on both sides of the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, is just one example. Now, once again, we see the consequences of bigotry coming from the White House, as Trump supporters act out their hatred.

A woefully insufficient response

Trump himself has utterly failed in the president’s traditional role as someone who unites the country. With a presidency that has been one long attack on Muslims, immigrants, women of color and Latinos, Trump has repeatedly stoked racial fears and division. It was only late Saturday afternoon that he tweeted about the “terrible shootings” in El Paso and said that he was working with state and local officials and law enforcement.

Fourteen minutes later, the president was tweeting about a UFC champion. For much of the weekend, which included a second mass shooting, Trump was ensconced at his golf course in New Jersey. He did say Monday that "racism, bigotry and white supremacy" are "sinister ideologies" that Americans must condemn and defeat. But his failure to speak forcefully about El Paso in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, and to apologize for his own rhetoric, speaks volumes.

Trump is certainly capable of speaking up when something matters to him. When an undocumented immigrant was charged with shooting and killing Kate Steinle in San Francisco in 2015, Trump helped turn the event into national news by demanding justice for Steinle and punishment for her alleged killer (he was found not guilty of murder in 2017). Trump used this episode to make the case that undocumented immigrants are a threat to the country.

After the El Paso shootings, will Trump denounce young white nationalists with as much fervor and persistence? Doubtful. That’s because Latinos don’t matter to this president. Just ask the people of Puerto Rico.

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Obviously, the president did not personally unload a rifle in El Paso. But the words that he uses matter, because of their impact. Not only have all El Pasoans been traumatized by the shootings, Latinos have more reason to feel that living in the Trump era amounts to living under a state of siege. Consider that a Pew poll from October found that Hispanics have become more pessimistic about our place in America: 54% of Latinos said that it has become more difficult to live in the U.S. as a Latino in the past few years. And when a majority of the country’s largest minority group feels uneasy about its place in the country, that’s a recipe for social instability.

El Paso will not be defined by the events on Saturday. The Sun City will grieve and rise again. By contrast, Trump’s presidency will forever be stained by his deadly xenophobia and racism.

Raul A. Reyes is an attorney and a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter: @RaulAReyes