The Threat Latino Voters Shouldn’t Ignore: Project 2025

What would a second Trump administration look like for Latinos? That question has been answered by Project 2025, an unprecedented, extreme Republican agenda that would fundamentally alter the fabric of our country. The plan – written by 140 advisors and staff close to Donald Trump and his campaign – would strip away the hard-earned rights of millions of Americans. Latinos would bear a disproportionate share of the suffering that this agenda promises to inflict.

One of the most glaring attacks on Latino communities in Project 2025 comes in its proposed erosion of voting rights and political representation. Project 2025 recommends gutting the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), which defends Americans of color from civil and voting rights violations under the Voting Rights Act. This would open the floodgates for bad actors to discriminate against Latino voters at the polls. Latinos are already more likely than our white peers to have our neighborhood polling sites closed, our mail-in ballot applications rejected, and to be gerrymandered into districts to dilute the power of our vote. These discriminatory practices account for the gap between the Latino population and the political power we wield. Project 2025 would leave Latinos without protection from the federal government.

Instead, Project 2025 would command DOJ’s Criminal Division to investigate “voter registration fraud and unlawful ballot correction.” Trump’s history is filled with unfounded claims that non-citizens influenced the 2016 election and that people who “did not look” eligible were allowed to vote. The myth of widespread voter fraud has been widely debunked, but that will not stop Trump and Project 2025 from weaponizing the DOJ to intimidate and potentially prosecute Latinos and other voters of color who seek to engage in the political process.

Project 2025’s extreme approach to immigration also threatens to tear Latino families and communities apart. It proposes deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into our cities to round up and deport undocumented immigrants, terminating the DACA program, which puts 500,000 Dreamers at risk of deportation, and repealing Temporary Protected Status (TPS), uprooting families who have lived here for decades.

Its proposal to bar U.S. citizens from living in federally assisted housing if they live with anyone who isn’t a citizen or legal permanent resident disproportionately hurts Latino families, who are more likely to live in mixed-status homes. It seeks to add a citizenship question to the 2030 census, a move that would reduce funding for crucial services like education, healthcare, and infrastructure in Latino neighborhoods. Moreover, it would lead to a loss of political representation, further disenfranchising Latino voices in politics.

All of these policies are designed to instill fear and uncertainty in Latino communities, force families to live in the shadows, and deter them from accessing essential services or participating in the political process.

Latinas would be particularly vulnerable to the backwards policies targeting reproductive rights and healthcare under Project 2025. As a younger population, Latinas are more likely to be of reproductive age than our white counterparts and experience higher rates of unintended pregnancy. Despite Latinos making up just 19.5% of the U.S. population, Latinas make up 25% of patients receiving abortions.

Project 2025 would revoke the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of abortion medication, allow employers to deny coverage for abortion care and access to birth control, and restrict abortion nationwide. Perhaps most troubling, it would allow the government to monitor women’s pregnancies and miscarriages to potentially prosecute them for seeking reproductive care. With nearly half of Latinas of reproductive age living in states that restrict abortion, these measures would put them at great risk.

Project 2025 represents a right-wing effort to roll back our political power and fundamental freedoms. Latino communities, already facing significant challenges, stand to lose the most under a second Trump presidency. We must stand united against any attempts to strip away the hard-fought gains we’ve made as a community.

Defeating Donald Trump by voting to elect Vice President Kamala Harris this November is the only way we can stop Project 2025 for certain. For the sake of our Latino communities, we must vote. By coming together and making our voices heard, we can protect our rights, ensure our representation, and build a more just and equitable future for everyone.

(*) Monica Escobedo Stand Up America Managing Director for Communications.

The texts published in this section are the authors’ sole responsibility, and La Opinión assumes no responsibility for them.