Mexican, Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Nicaraguan: They are all “Mexican” to Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Trump has said that Mexicans are rapists, drug dealers and criminals, among other things. Yes, there might be a few that are, but most of us are not like that. Of the total arrests in 2013, only 16.6 percent were Hispanic, according to recent FBI reports. Not even half of our Hispanic population is violent, so where is he exactly getting his statistics from?

The number of Hispanics who receive a higher education has increased in recent years. In 2014, 35 percent of Hispanics aged 18 to 24 were enrolled in a two- or four-year college, a 13 percent increase from 22 percent in 1993, according to the Pew Research Center. At CSU East Bay alone, Hispanics are the highest percentage of enrollees, compared to other ethnic groups.

Trump is wrong and does not have his facts straight about jobs, his proposed wall along the Mexican border or Latino voters.
Job loss
Trump said that Mexicans are stealing jobs, but let’s be honest: Who else is going to take the jobs in the fields, picking fruits and vegetables in severe hot and cold weather? Who is going to work at a fast food restaurant for minimum wage or at a fancy restaurant as a dishwasher?

No one.

Hispanics are the ones who take these jobs with no hesitation because they are trying to give their family a better life than they had back home. In 2014, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 43.49 percent of Hispanics work in agriculture, 36.7 percent work in maintenance, 32.3 percent work in construction and 24.9 percent work in the food industry.

Even some of Trump’s employees are Hispanic. “I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent,” Trump told Foreign Policy Magazine in June. So why exactly does he want to kick out Mexicans? I don’t think that people from the white descent are going to take the jobs that Hispanic people do, because they are difficult.

Trump is not making our country great again, Latinos are.

The wall

The solution to these problems, according to Trump, is to deport all the undocumented people and build a wall between Mexico and the United States. He also claims that Mexico is going to pay for it. Has he not heard former Mexican presidents Vicente Fox or Felipe Calderón say they are not going to pay for that wall?

Fox recently said in an interview with Fusion’s Jorge Ramos, “I’m not going to pay for that fucking wall.

He should pay for it! He’s got the money.” Fox has a point: Trump is a businessman, so why should someone who doesn’t want a wall pay for it?

Calderón told CNBC in February 2016, “Mexican people — we are not going to pay any single cent for such a stupid wall, and they need to know that, and it’s going to be completely useless.” This wall is completely useless because Mexican people don’t necessarily need to cross over a wall. Many people get visas and come into the United States legally, they just overstay the allowed time. So what is a wall going to do? Completely nothing: It is just a waste of time and money.

Besides being a waste, it is also impossible to build a wall along the Mexican border. You cannot build a wall on the Rio Grande because it would interfere with the flow of the water.

Voters

In the United States there are 225,778 million eligible voters and of those voters, 27,302 million are Hispanic, according to the Pew Research Center. Since the 2012 election, the Hispanic population has grown by 17 percent, compared to the white population, which only grew by two percent.

A national survey by The People Press conducted June 15-26 shows that of all the votes, 51 percent support Hillary and 42 percent support Trump based on registered voters. I would like to think that Hispanic people wouldn’t be part of the percentage that support Trump, but I’m wrong.

Either way, Trump doesn’t have a chance because 71 percent of Hispanic millennials support Hillary and only 19 percent support Trump. More Hispanics have a voice in this election because our people have gained their U.S. citizenship and can finally vote.

Millennials, wake up! Some of us are finally voting for the first time in this November election. I am one of those first-time voters.

It is crucial for us to vote because we can make a difference in who is going to become our next president. I am Mexican and do not consider myself anything else.

Trump has decided to label me by the way I look, and that is not who I want in a president.