Democratic strategist Van Jones said late Tuesday that "people who don't have papers" were "terrified" as votes were tabulated and the election moved toward former President Trump and away from Vice President Harris.
“There are going to be people tomorrow who are going to be handing clothes at the dry cleaners to people who don’t have papers. There are going to be people who are going to be cleaning your teeth tomorrow who don’t have papers. And they are terrified tonight," Jones said.
Trump has made immigration and the border central to his campaign during this election cycle. He’s made sweeping calls for the National Guard and local police to conduct mass deportations, saying his second term would carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history.”
Those pledges have been paired with a number of false claims about migrants, including the amplification of a conspiracy theory that accused Haitian migrants of abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
During the CNN interview, Jones also mentioned Black women and transgender people, in remarks highlighted by Mediaite.
"They thought tomorrow morning they were going to walk out with their shoulders back a little bit, maybe be able to breathe for the first time, and feel like they belong someplace. They did everything that they knew how to do, and it’s going to be harder than it should be tomorrow for them to hold their heads up, and they’re not the only people who are hurting tonight," Jones said.
"If you’re a parent of a trans kid, your child’s face was used as a springboard to power for somebody. That doesn’t feel good," Jones added.
A recent Black Women in America national poll, conducted by The Highland Project and Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies, showed that the majority of Black women voters, 71 percent, said this was the most important election of their lifetime.
“It’s people who woke up this morning with a dream and are going to bed with a nightmare," Jones concluded.
Trump won the presidency Tuesday, Decision Desk HQ has projected, making the call after declaring Trump projected victories in Pennsylvania and Alaska, which got him to exactly 270 electoral votes.
