Las Vegas pastors among Latino clergy backing Trump on border wall

WASHINGTON — Pasqual Urrabazo, a pastor at the International Church of Las Vegas, has been to the White House twice in the last month to voice his support for President Donald Trump’s proposal to beef up security at the U.S. border with Mexico.

One of those occurred Jan. 25, when he and his wife, also a pastor at the western Las Vegas church, were among nine Hispanic pastors who endorsed Trump’s push to build a border wall at a White House-sponsored roundtable discussion.

“I am an immigrant from Mexico,” Urrabazo’s wife, Norma, told Trump at the meeting, “and also the daughter of an immigrant from Mexico. And I just wanted you to know that you have not only my support but you have the support of our community.”

The 57-year-old Mexican-American minister, who was born in Utah, and his wife, 48, both of whom minister to the Spanish-speaking portion of the congregation at the nondenominational “multicultural” International Church of Las Vegas, may defy stereotypes about Hispanic sentiments on the president’s controversial border policies. But they say that better security would benefit Hispanic Americans and undocumented immigrants alike.

How did they feel about Trump’s remarks about Mexicans when he announced his campaign to run for president in June 2015? As Trump announced his plan to build a “great wall” at the border, he said of Mexican immigrants, “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.”

“I talked to him about that,” Pasqual Urrabazo told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He said he and other Hispanic community leaders told Trump at the time that he “needs to change his verbiage.” Since, Urrabazo believes Trump has cleaned up his use of the word “Mexican.”

Spike in Latino support?

Trump opened last month’s roundtable meeting by boasting about a recent Marist/NPR/PBS poll that showed that his approval rating had spiked by 19 percent to 50 percent among Latinos. He attributed the bump to the strong economy and his stand on border security.

But Barbara Carvalho, director of the poll, told PBS that that the number of Latino Americans within the larger survey of 153 people was so small that the results could be off by nearly 10 percent in either direction.

For his part, Pastor Mario Sandoval of Waco, Texas, said Trump’s border wall was popular among those attending the event: “We’re not for open borders. We’re for secure borders, because we know that it’s going to bring resolution to a lot of the things that people go through.”

Urrabazo said that his church has been active in trying to protect vulnerable youth — immigrant and American-born — from criminal gangs. He said he supports the border wall because “we need to secure our border,” stop the trafficking of drugs, discourage gang activity and put an end to human trafficking.

By human trafficking, Urrabazo said he was primarily referring to the prostitution of girls and boys, which remains a problem for both undocumented immigrants and children of immigrants who are American citizens.

But he added that many female migrants have been raped as they traveled with caravans from Central America to the United States. That assertion is bolstered by Doctors without Borders, which said that nearly a third of women interviewed said they had been sexually assaulted during the journey north.

Urrabazo also said he supported the 35-day government shutdown that followed Trump’s refusal to sign spending legislation because “I believe the president did what he needed to do.”

The Urrabazos discussed how their faith has informed their support for Trump. For Pasqual Urrabazo, the goal is to keep his community safe.

Norma Urrabazo, who still visits her native Mexico twice a year, spoke of receiving a hate letter that called her a traitor. But she said it did not deter her. “I’m called to stand with him,” she said of Trump.

Having spoken with Trump on four occasions now, she said, “You see the humanitarian side of him,” adding, “He just wants to do what’s best for the nation.”

Trump visited the International Church of Las Vegas in October 2016, where Senior Associate Pastor Denise Goulet prayed over him and Pasqual Urrabazo blessed him.

He also stopped by to meet with met with Urrabazo and other local pastors when he came to Las Vegas in the wake of the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting that left 58 dead and hundreds wounded.

‘Nothing has happened’

Asked about his view on Democrats’ who court the Latino community by pushing a path to citizenship, Urrabazo responded, “They’ve been promising the Hispanic people for years now and nothing has happened. The Hispanic people, they’re changing their minds about Democrats.”

That change, if it’s occurring, has yet to show up in political polling.

A recent Pew Research poll found that 69 percent of Latino voters supported Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections, and 29 percent voted for Republicans.

Norma Urrabazo, who came to the U.S. at 7, became a U.S. citizen as an adult thanks to the Immigration Reform and Control Act signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986.

Speaking with the Review-Journal by phone Thursday, she spoke of an undocumented cousin in California who is a high-school counselor in California and a participant in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. She acknowledged she would like to see a permanent resolution for her cousin, who is bettering her community, instead of a temporary fix.

Last month Trump proposed a deal with Democrats to end the partial government shutdown that included a three-year extension of legal status for 700,000 DACA recipients, but did not include a permanent path to citizenship. His proposal went nowhere and within the week, Trump signed a measure to end the 35-day shutdown.

While the White House said the roundtable meeting indicated that the president’s stance on the border enjoys considerable support among U.S. Hispanics, some critics weren’t buying that message.

“While these pastors may lead a robust church life, they are severely misinformed about policy and the impacts that this administration has had on the Latino community,” said Karina Martinez, communications director of the social-justice group Mi Familia Vota. She suggested that the Urrabazos attend policy briefings with “organizations on the ground.”

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.