Andy Madtes, President of the South Florida AFL-CIO, blasted Donald Trump on Friday for the "irony" of visiting Miami on National Citizenship Day and Constitution Day.
"The Constitution, written by immigrants, outlines the guiding principles of what makes America great — our diversity,” Madtes said in a statement. “Donald Trump claims to defend the Constitution, but his hateful rhetoric shreds everything it stands for. Trump doesn’t want an America by 'the People' unless those people are rich, racist, xenophobic and misogynistic just like him."
Together with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the group is hosting citizenship clinics in South Florida on Friday and Saturday to help people apply for citizenship.
The group says that fewer than one in 10 immigrant families who are eligible for citizenship actually apply for it, and that many are hard-pressed to pay for the $680 application fee and cost of an attorney to help them.
The workshop includes assistance from pro bono lawyers and trained volunteers to help people complete the naturalization application and see if they qualify for the fee to be waived.
Vanessa Urbina with the Florida Immigrant Coalition says the coalition of immigrant advocacy groups has kicked its voter registration efforts into high gear with the approaching election.
“We’re mobilizing people all around Florida,” Urbina said. "We have to make sure our people are going out to vote in November.”
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's campaign ripped into Donald Trump on Friday for his terse admission that President Barack Obama was born in the United States while accusing the Democratic nominee of starting the theory during the 2008 primary.
“Trump’s actions today were disgraceful. After five years of pushing a racist conspiracy theory into the mainstream, it was appalling to watch Trump appoint himself the judge of whether the President of the United States is American," campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement. "This sickening display shows more than ever why Donald Trump is totally unfit be president.”
