OPINION

Illegal immigrants would be crazy to vote: Ruben Navarrette

Trump claims non-citizens are crashing polling stations and hijacking our elections. Wrong.

Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Protesters at the Arizona state capitol in Phoenix in 2010.

SAN DIEGO — Donald Trump’s loose talk about a rigged election recently took a predictable but unproductive turn when he seized on the old fable that illegal immigrants — or as Trump calls them, “bad hombres” — are voting in U.S. elections.

The charge is that the undocumented are coming to the United States not to work at difficult jobs but to work the levers of our political system. Next we’ll hear that we need to build big beautiful walls around polling stations.

The accusation is a crowd pleaser for conservatives because it combines three things they dislike: illegal immigration, voter fraud, and the idea that they might be punished at the ballot box for what they say on the campaign trail.

So Trump is stoking fears that we have a national crisis of illegal immigrants crashing polling places, without driver’s licenses and despite the fact that their names are not on voting rolls.

“When you look at the voter fraud, when you look at illegal immigrants voting all over the country,” Trump told Fox News. “We have voters all over the country where they’re not even citizens of the country, and they’re voting.”

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To make sense of this charge, you’ll need four things: humility, perspective, critical thinking and common sense.

Humility: We Americans have a high opinion of ourselves. According to polls, many U.S.-born millennials are so disgusted by their pitiful choices on Nov. 8 that many are thinking of staying home. Do we really think that scores of foreigners are going to be so enamored of our Tweedledum and Tweedledee candidates that they’re going to come out of the shadows to vote as a way of showing the love?

Perspective: These are people who often come from countries where there is zero trust in government, politics, or politicians. Here in this country, they’ve seen both parties play politics with the issue they care about most: immigration reform. On Election Day, they’re going to get over all that and believe that their vote will change the world? And how are they going to get to the polling station? On a unicorn?

Critical Thinking: I’ve interviewed dozens of illegal immigrants. Not one of them ever expressed a desire to vote. Their wish list: green cards so they don’t get deported, driver’s licenses so they can get to work, and the right to travel back to their home country to visit relatives. That’s it. No rallies, no jury duty, no voting, no PTA meetings, no cute little stickers announcing to the world: “I voted!”

Common Sense: It’s no picnic being an illegal immigrant. But it’s worse being an illegal immigrant who gets deported. Oh, many of these people come back. Often, they have no choice. Their lives and families are still here, on this side of the border. But that’s not easy or cheap.

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A few years ago, a woman I know who runs a housekeeping business with as many as 200 clients was stopped by local police for running through a stop sign in a suburb north of San Diego, handed over to Border Patrol, and deported to Tijuana. She was back home with her kids in three days, after paying a smuggler extra for express delivery. A trip that would have normally cost her $1,000 ran her $3,000. Her neighbors back home pooled their money to pay the tab. It took her years to pay them back.

So let’s see. Trump wants us to believe that illegal immigrants — many of whom have soured on politics back home and in this country — are going to be so swept up in the euphoria of supporting dreadful candidates that they’ll risk their freedom, their economic well-being, and their family’s welfare to step into the light and go to the polling station to vote.

When you say it like that, it sounds crazy. Like three words that don’t belong together, and which Americans likely won’t be saying anytime soon: “President Donald Trump.”

Ruben Navarrette Jr., a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors, is a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group and The Daily Beast. Follow him on Twitter @RubenNavarrette.

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