Denise Jacquez

Period - 3
Senior Paper
Hispanic Immigrants and their Bias Towards the 2016 Election
Hispanics are becoming more influential in elections every year. The 2016 Election is the
most diverse election in all of U.S. History. However, many are uneducated. And these
uneducated votes will directly influence the results. If nothing is done, then people are left with
an unwanted president and ideals that go against what many thought they voted for. Many
Hispanics are participating in the 2016 Election; however, many are uneducated about the
candidates and vote based on biased opinions rather than fact. To understand why bias matters,
one must look at the definition of bias, the influence of Hispanics on the election, how the media
distorts the truth, how the election influences other candidates, and why people are biased in the
first place.
According to the Cochrane Method, “bias is a systematic error, or deviation from the
truth, in results or inferences.” While the Method is referring to how scientific experiments are
subject to bias, this same definition can be applied to any uneducated voter (Cochrane,
“Assessing Risk of Bias in Included”). Poorly informed voters, better known as uneducated
voters, vote solely based on opinion and do not look at evidence to back up any claim they have.
These voters are the ones that help decide the race for presidency. As mentioned before,
Hispanics are having a greater influence than ever before; there was a jump of about 4 million
more Hispanic voters from 2012 to 2016 (Krogstad, et al.). However, not every new voter is
properly informed. One big issue that Hispanics focus on is immigration. The issue of
immigration pushed Hispanic voters to become more involved; though mainly influenced by
Trump’s claims of deportation. In the Washington Post, Robert Samuels focuses on five
undocumented workers, all of whom work in Miami and they already struggle with immigration
laws. In the article, the workers make a point of supporting Hillary Clinton and the Democratic
Party by calling Donald Trump “Mr. Crazy” because they fear that Trump would make it
increasingly more difficult in obtaining work visas. So, these workers are trying to make a
difference in the voting community this year, by trying to get more people to vote for Democrats
(Samuels, “I don’t trust Mr. Crazy”.). In the end, the five undocumented workers were unable to
persuade enough voters to vote Democrats. Nonetheless, the voter turnout for Hispanics was 27.3
million, making it a historic turnout.
Not everything seen or heard can be trusted, a great example is media. This includes the
network news, newspaper, social media, mail, and websites. For example, there were two valid
candidates (on every state ballot): Donald Trump for the Republican Party, and Hillary Clinton
for the Democratic Party. Not many media outlets report there even being a third party. For
example, there were six valid third party candidates who made it to about 15% of the general
election ballots (Ballotpedia, “Presidential Candidates, 2016). Most people either recognize the
Republican or Democratic parties and completely overlook the others. For example, it is not
discussed how Jill Stein and Gary Johnson both, respectively, received more than a percent of
the national vote. The media also distorts the position of candidates based on rumors and old,
irrelevant data. Near the beginning of 2015, Clinton was ruled as an unfit leader due to her
deleting over 30,000 classified emails while being U.S. Secretary of State. While her mistake of
deleting the emails was true in all respects, deeming her an unfit leader was seen as an over-
exaggeration. The FBI did conclude that Clinton’s behavior was extremely careless (FBI, 2016),
but her leadership should not be compromised over one mistake. Many still believe Clinton is the
best choice for president even though Trump won. On Trump’s side, many people are bringing
up a lewd conversation Trump had in 2005 about kissing and groping women in a vulgar way.
Caught on tape and posted all over social media, it gave more people reason to denounce Trump
as an appropriate leader and believe him unfit for presidency. Shortly after the release of the
video, Trump released a video quoting, “I’ve never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be
someone that I’m not. I’ve said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this
more than a decade-old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t
reflect who I am” (Fahrenthold, The Washington Post). Even after apologizing, people bring up
this decade-old depiction of Trump in debates and conversations, further denouncing Trump.
Breaking away from this slander, Trump supporters brought up a two-decade old scandal, the
Lewinsky scandal, of Bill Clinton’s sexual misconduct with women during his presidency. As
stated by the author of the article, Eric Bradner states, “Donald Trump is using three women who
have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct -- as well as one woman who accused a man that
Hillary Clinton defended in court of raping her when she was 12 years old -- to attack the
Democratic nominee” (Bradner, “Bill Clinton’s alleged sexual misconduct”). In the end, both
Republicans and Democrats are distorted by media outlets.
The United States presidential election mainly concerns those who are voting but for the
2016 election, candidates have to appeal to a wider audience in order to win the popular vote.
Thus, pushing candidates to get involved with various communities to boost their popularity.
Since Hispanic voters are focused on immigration; they will lean towards the candidate who
offers an appealing and more lenient policy than someone who wants to crack down and
reinforce policies. Trump’s claims of deportation have gotten many Hispanics to turn against him
and look towards Clinton with high hopes. One such Hispanic is Maria Luisa Enriquez, a 55-
year-old ‘uneducated’ immigrant in support of Hillary Clinton. In an interview where she was
asked about being a Hispanic immigrant, Maria brings up her opinion on Trump’s claims. She
states, “The only thing that I agree with when it comes to Donald Trump is that he will deport
immigrants who are criminals and who have things- that’s what I fully agree with him on. But
the people who work and try to do their best here in the United States in order to be with their
children, them no. But the rest, yes. And we don’t support that, as Hispanics, we don’t support
that. And exactly for that reason, because we are people who don’t have any education in relation
to politics, not here or in Mexico” (Enriquez, Maria Luisa. Personal Interview. [16 Nov. 2016]).
Enriquez believes not all illegal immigrants should be deported, just the ones with a criminal
record. She also states that Hispanics do not support deportation for reasons such as not enough
money, lack of naturalization records, or proper identification. Trump’s claims have gotten many
Hispanics, including Enriquez, to reconsider voting Republican. On August 31st, a meeting was
set up between the President of Mexico and Donald Trump. The Mexican president, Enrique
Pena Nieto, and Donald Trump are considered some of the most unpopular men in Mexico.
When it was heard that these two unfavorable people would be meeting up, it created a lot of
tension between Mexico and the United States. Nieto wanted to, “promote Mexico’s interests in
the world and, principally, to protect Mexicans, wherever they might be” (Graham, “What Does
Enrique Peña Nieto Want From Trump's Visit?”). For participating in the meeting, Trump was
looking to show that he was not afraid of Mexico nor spiteful to Mexicans, but rather serious
about trying to lower illegal immigration rates in the United States. This is a big step in the right
direction for Trump. For Clinton, her campaign is largely focused on young voters. To appeal to
younger audiences, she uses social media such as Twitter and Facebook. She is also in open
support of groups such as the LGBT community and Black Lives Matter (Proconorg, “2016
Presidential Candidate Positions on 75 Issues.”). By appealing to such groups, Clinton is able to
gain support of those involved in the LGBT community and minorities who are recognizing and
abolishing prejudice towards African Americans. Both Republican and Democratic Parties are
fully aware of the support needed from different communities in order to secure the popular vote.
And yet during election day, the states that were expected to be Democratic ended up voting
Republican. She lost Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, all of which voted
Democrat in 2012. Also to her surprise, she underperformed Obama in the popular vote. She had
a lower demographic turnout amongst African Americans, young voters, and even Hispanics
(Luhby, “How Hillary Clinton Lost.” ). The reason why Clinton lost so much of the popular vote
stems back to media depiction and how biased voters are ill-informed.
Before anything, the election is a lengthy process, it does not occur in a couple months.
The process begins more than a year before the official election season; in spring, the candidates
announce their intentions to run. After spring comes the summer primary and caucus debates,
which last until next spring of the election year. From January to July of the election year,
primaries and caucuses are held. From July to September, candidates are nominated to represent
the parties. After those candidates are selected, they participate in the presidential debates from
September to October. Then, in early November is Election Day. The process does not stop
there, contrary to popular belief, but extends till the January of the year after. This is when the
Electoral College cast their votes, which are counted by Congress in weeks proceeding
Inauguration. January 20th is the official Inauguration Day of the president-elect (USA.gov,
“Presidential Election Process”). Candidates are considered eligible by only three requirements
which are listed in U.S. Constitution: be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 years of age, and have
lived in the United States for 14 years. Anyone can declare candidacy for President at any time
by registering in the Federal Election Commission (FEC). But after Election Day, the president-
elect has meetings with the current president to explain the state (situation, problems) of the
United States. After the meeting, the president-elect is expected to begin picking members for
their cabinet or remain with the current one. They are expected to attend all Intelligence
Briefings from being nominated president-elect till the end of their term of presidency. The
Intelligence briefings are meetings that occur every day of their presidency to keep the president
informed. Then comes Inauguration Day when the president-elect and vice-president elect are
sworn into office.
As mentioned earlier, biased votes skew election results and can play a big role in the
candidacy for president. These uneducated voters get all their information about every candidate
from social media and news networks. Many choose not to research into the candidates and rely
on opinions. For the candidates, this makes it difficult to get their message and plans as president
across to the greater population. Instead, potential voters are left only with opinions of
newscasters, friends, family, and the community they live in. These potential voters then form
their own opinions and relay those to younger audiences. The younger voters then spread their
opinions creating a trickle down effect. And this happens every election year. Instead of taking
the time to do their own research, uneducated voters vote blindly for their choice in candidates.
When asked, these uneducated voters tend to have a strong emotional connection to the
candidates for the wrong reasons. A popular example, many people do not like Trump for his
claims of deporting all immigrants back to their respective countries. And what many people do
not understand is that Trump wants to lower illegal and criminal immigrant rates in the United
States. He is not trying to rip apart hard-working families because he is racist, that is a myth that
the media has created to smear Trump’s chance of winning (Masters Jonathan, “Trump on the
Issues.”). This type of muckraking would not be so effective if voters did their own research into
the candidates. Even though it is not possible to completely get rid of bias, there are ways to
prevent or abstain from a biased opinion. Walden University has an online writing center which
helps inform writers on how to avoid bias in writing. Even though this page focuses on avoiding
bias in papers, it makes some great points on strategies that can be applied to real life situations.
There are five key things to always keep in mind: generalization, evidence, objectivity,
sensitivity, and self-awareness. Over-generalization does not acknowledge the variations that can
occur within different people due to different backgrounds and lives. By providing evidence, it
solidifies any claims made. If a claim is made without evidence, it can be disputed and therefore
falls apart. By being bias, it can have negative implications, even if the conversation is a positive
one. So, to eliminate possible bias, objectivity is key. Being sensitive to a topic is also key.
While objectivity avoids taking sides, sensitivity is important in order to avoid racism, sexism,
and any other types of discriminations. If nothing else is remembered, it is good to be self-aware
of the possibility of bias in conversations, discussions, debates, and any other social setting
(Walden University, “Academic Guides: Scholarly Voice: Avoiding Bias”). Bias has always
been a part of human nature. It is not possible to completely get rid of bias without eliminating
emotion, and emotion is what makes people human. But, being unbiased is helpful for keeping
the peace. It maintains order and structure to a person’s long and chaotic life. While to many, it
may not seem important, it is something the human race should incorporate into their daily lives.
This includes politics, life, socializing, and anything in between.
The 2016 election is not over yet. The electoral college is still finalizing their votes.
While Donald Trump was announced president-elect on election night, not all votes were
counted. This does not mean that Donald Trump is not going to be president, but rather that the
election is not over. As mentioned earlier, the election process continues until Inauguration Day
and repeats once again in four years. Then on Inauguration Day, Trump will officially be the
United States president. Many people will not give Donald Trump a chance to prove himself,
specifically Hispanic immigrants. Many of these Hispanics are uneducated of the candidate’s
positions on common issues. This could be blamed on the lack of information about each
candidate or simply ignorance, either way these views are unfavorable. People need to become
aware of the issues and problems that happen in the United States and need to be educated.
Uneducated voters tend to vote for a candidate for the wrong reasons and end up choosing
someone who does not reflect their interests. Maria Luisa Enriquez near the end of her interview
stated, “That, that one should be more informed, be more informed about everything that’s
happening. Just because I’m an immigrant doesn’t mean I don’t have to inform myself about
what’s happening in the world.” She made a great point and it is something U.S. citizens and
immigrants should keep in mind during the next four years. Even if Trump is not highly
respected, his policies and actions are what matter. So instead of finding fault in his background
and past, people should keep an open-mind and focus on the evidence presented, not on biased
opinions. Although bias is something that humankind cannot avoid, it can be minimized and
channeled to be helpful rather hurtful.
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