Trump rips Harris on illegal immigration during Latino voter town hall: Hispanic voters ‘most against it’

Former President Donald Trump ripped the Biden-Harris administration for the nation’s illegal immigration crisis during a town hall event with undecided Hispanic voters, arguing that Hispanic voters “are most against” illegal migration across the border. 

“We have to have a lot of people come into our country. We just want them to come in legally through a system, because [the Biden-Harris administration] released hundreds of thousands of people that are murderers, drug dealers, terrorists. They’re coming in totally, nobody knows who they are, where they come from, and the people that are most against it are the Hispanic people,” Trump said in the event that aired Wednesday evening. 

“They are totally against it,” he added, after he was asked by a Spanish-speaking voter who would occupy farm and produce jobs if illegal immigrants are deported under his administration. 

“Noticias Univision Presenta: Los Latinos Preguntan … Donald Trump Responde” aired at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, spotlighting immigration, the economy, and Trump defending his previous administration in the hour-long pre-recorded event. The town hall, which was hosted by Televisa anchor Enrique Acevedo, is the second held by Univision this election cycle, after hosting Vice President Kamala Harris last week. 

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Trump’s appearance on Univison comes as he works to earn Hispanic voters’ support, with recent polling showing he’s making gains with the voting bloc. 

One Republican voter who resides in the battleground state of Arizona questioned Trump about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, asking the 45th president if he believes the migrants are eating cats and dogs, as he has previously cited on the campaign trail and during his presidential debate against Harris. 

Trump said he will travel to Springfield and provide “a full report” after his visit. 

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Former US President Donald Trump during a Noticias Univision presidential town hall in Miami, Florida, US, on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. Trump shifted from a mostly defensive stance of his protectionist trade policies to more of an offensive posture by going after those he considers to be “anti-tariff.” Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Getty Images)

“I was just saying what was reported, that’s been reported. And eating other things, too, that they’re not supposed to be. But this is, all I do is report. … I was there, I’m going to be there and we’re going to take a look and I’ll give you a full report when I do. But that’s been in the newspapers and reported pretty broadly,” Trump responded. 

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“I will say this, as far as Springfield is concerned, because I do know that situation. You have a city of 52,000 people, and they’ve added almost 30,000 migrants into the city. If you were a person that lived there, if you lived in Springfield, Ohio, and all of a sudden you couldn’t get into a hospital, you couldn’t get your children into a school, you wouldn’t be able to buy groceries. You can no longer pay the rent because the government’s paying rent,” he continued. “….If any of that happened, it would be a disaster for you.”

Sign welcoming motorists to city of Springfield, Ohio. (Michael Lee/Fox News Digital)

Polling published this month found Vice President Kamala Harris has an edge over Trump among self-identified Hispanic voters in two key battleground states, Arizona and Nevada, but Trump has made gains among younger male Hispanic voters compared to four years ago, according to a pair of Suffolk University/USA Today polls. 

A Fox News poll published Wednesday found that Harris received majority support among Hispanics, at 52%, and voters under age 30, at 54%, however, those stats trail President Biden’s support in 2020, according to the Fox News Voter Analysis election survey. That poll overall found Trump has a two-point average over Harris overall, which is a reversal from last month, when Harris had a narrow advantage. 

While in Florida, various recent polling found Trump leading Harris among Hispanic voters, the Miami Herald reported on Wednesday. 

Trump continued fielding various questions from audience members, including one female full-time student in Florida who asked how he plans to tackle the spiraling national debt, which is worrying her. 

“We have record national debt. We’ve never had anything like it before. We were getting ready to start paying down debt, and then we got hit with a thing called COVID, or the China virus,” he responded. 

“What’s going to solve the problem is growth. It’s a thing called growth that nobody even talks about from the Democrat standpoint, because they don’t know about growth. But we’re going to bring companies in. We’re going to bring tremendous business to our country, and that’s going to solve that. Also, waste, fraud and abuse. And we have Elon Musk, who’s a fantastic guy and a fantastic genius. He’s a genius at a lot of things, but he’s a great business person,” he explained, citing his plan to make tech billionaire Elon Musk the “secretary of cost-cutting” if he’s re-elected. 

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DORAL, FLORIDA – OCTOBER 16: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump stands with moderator Enrique Acevedo (L) as he attends a Univision Noticias town hall event on October 16, 2024 in Doral, Florida. Trump addressed undecided Latino voters as he continues campaigning against his rival, Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A stay-at-home mom from North Carolina asked Trump if he agreed with his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, on her pro-choice abortion stance in her new memoir that suggested a woman’s right to choose an abortion is a “fundamental right of individual liberty.”

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“First of all, I told Melania that she has to go with her heart and she has to do what she has to do. She has to support what she wants to support. And she wrote a great book. It was just, it’s the number one bestseller. I hope you all go out and buy it, but it’s really a great book. But I want her to do what she wants to do. I wouldn’t be one to oppose what I think,” he responded. 

“They wanted to get rid of Roe v. Wade and let it come back to the States. And I’ve done that,” he added on abortion. “And now the people are voting on it, and you’re going to see it’s going to heal. It will never heal. It would have never healed if it stayed in Congress, if it stayed in the federal government. It’s now in the states. The people are voting as we speak. The people are voting. Some states have completed – like Kansas, Ohio, and a lot of others. But,, it’s going to settle a problem that was only going to get more divisive, divisive and worse. It was a big, big dispute for a long period of time.”

The town hall was originally scheduled for Oct. 8, but was postponed due to Hurricane Milton. 

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