America Ferrera: "Thank You, Donald Trump!"
America Ferrera is sending a big thank you to Donald Trump.
In an open letter for The Huffington Post, the actress responds to the presidential hopeful's controversial comments about Mexican immigrants.
So, why is the Latina star thanking the real estate mogul? She thinks his comments will help get Latino voters out to the polls for the 2016 presidential election.
"You've said some pretty offensive things about Latino immigrants recently, and I think they're worth addressing. Because, you know, this is the United States of America, where I have a right to speak up even if I'm not a billionaire. Isn't that awesome?" she wrote.
"Anyway, I heard what you said about the kind of people you think Latino immigrants are -- people with problems, who bring drugs, crime and rape to America. While your comments are incredibly ignorant and racist, I don't want to spend my time chastising you. I'll leave that to your business partners like Univision and NBC, who have the power to scold you where it hurts. Instead, I'm writing to say thank you!"
"You see, what you just did with your straight talk was send more Latino voters to the polls than several registration rallies combined!" the former "Ugly Betty" star wrote in a blog post published Thursday, adding, "Remarks like yours will serve brilliantly to energize Latino voters and increase turnout on election day against you and any other candidate who runs on a platform of hateful rhetoric."
Trump has taken a lot of heat for comments he made during this month's presidential announcement speech in which he accused Latino immigrants of bringing drugs, crime and rapists to the U.S.
"The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems. When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," Trump said. "They're sending people that have lots of problems. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists."
Trump's comments have impacted the Miss USA pageant, which Trump co-owns. The fallout began when Colombian singer J Balvin canceled his planned performance at the Miss USA pageant. Roselyn Sanchez and Cristian De La Fuente soon exited as this year's co-hosts, and Univision announced it wouldn't air the pageant. Now Mexico won't be sending a contestant to the Miss Universe contest.