Venezuelan-American voters split between Trump and Harris as election day nears

Donald Trump made strong anti-migrant statements at his NYC rally this week targeting Kamala Harrisʼs policies. His focus on Venezuelan migrants has become a key-point in pre-election speeches

Kamala has imported criminal migrants from prisons and jails insane asylums and mental institutions from all around the world from Venezuela to the Congo

The Venezuelan-American community has seen huge growth since early-2000s (with more than half-million people living in US now) Most of them settled in Florida specially in Miami-Dade Broward and Orange counties

We are an ideal punching bag right now for those who want to criticize migration because we really cannot punch back yet in regards to voting

The voting power of this group keeps growing - about 5 years ago there were 75k eligible voters in Florida alone. However many recent arrivals cant vote yet including:

• People who came under Bidens parole program
• Recent asylum seekers
• Non-naturalized residents

The communityʼs voting preferences are split between economic and foreign policy issues. Bidenʼs deal with Venezuelan leader Maduro for free elections failed when opposition leader María Corina Machado got banned from running

Recent polls show mixed results: while Trump leads in Florida by 6-percent Harris has more support from Latino voters nation-wide. The communityʼs concerns focus on two main things - US economic policy and approach to Venezuelan crisis

Adelys Ferro from Venezuelan American Caucus points to a deeper issue: “We want a messiah to come and save us; and we believe that messiah is going to be a strongman“ she explains about communities voting patterns

Young voters like Andres Fuenmayor (first-time voter) look at immigration differently: “Immigrants dont just pop out of a vacuum people need to move to better their living conditions“