San Diego is considered a binational city by many who live and work
on opposite sides of the border, and about a third of the city's
population is Latino.
A man is arrested during
a demonstration against Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald
Trump outside his campaign event in San Diego, California , U.S. May 27,
2016
Donald Trump
brought his message of walls and deportations to the doorstep of
America’s busiest border crossing on Friday as the presumptive
Republican presidential nominee greeted supporters in San Diego, amid
one of the largest counter-protests organised against him.
The
scene inside the San Diego Convention Center during Trump's speech was
relatively placid, while outside demonstrators opposed to his
controversy-ridden White House bid marched and chanted, carrying signs
criticizing his rhetoric against illegal immigration.
Waving
U.S. and Mexican flags, more than 1,000 people turned out for
anti-trump rallies in San Diego, a city on the U.S.-Mexico border whose San Ysidro port of entry sees nearly 300,000 people a day cross legally between the countries.
San
Diego is considered a binational city by many who live and work on
opposite sides of the border, and about a third of the city's population
is Latino.
During Trump's speech on Friday, some
protesters outside the convention centre scaled a barrier and lobbed
water bottles at police. One man was pulled off the wall and arrested as
others were surrounded by fellow protesters and backed away from the
confrontation.
After the convention centre
emptied, clusters of Trump supporters and anti-Trump demonstrators began
to mix in the streets, many exchanging shouted epithets and some
throwing water bottles at one another.
Police in
riot gear declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and ordered the
crowd to disperse, herding the crowd out of the city's hotel and
restaurant-filled Gaslamp Quarter.
San Diego
police said on Twitter that 35 arrests were made during the protest. No
property damage or injuries were reported, police said.
"Fantastic
job on handling the thugs who tried to disrupt our very peaceful and
well attended rally," Trump tweeted to police afterwards.
Trump
has weathered months of blowback from all ends of the political
spectrum for his immigration policy, which calls for the building of a
wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and deporting the nearly 11 million
undocumented immigrants who reside in the United States.
Critics
have said his plan is needlessly cruel and impossible to implement. At
Trump's campaign stops, attendees often chant "build the wall."
While
Trump is running unopposed in the June 7 California Republican primary,
his stance on border control and deportation seems unlikely to resonate
with the electorate at large in a state where political fallout from a
Republican-backed crackdown on illegal immigrants 20 years ago cost the
party dearly.
Friday was not the first time Trump
has been greeted by civil unrest in California, which is home to the
largest Latino population in the country. Late last month, a visit to
the California Republican convention set off days of protests in the
area, leading to several arrests.
WAITING FOR "FIRST PLACE FINISHER"
Shortly
before taking the stage in San Diego, Trump issued a statement ruling
out a one-on-one debate with second-place Democratic hopeful Bernie
Sanders, who was also in California, killing off a potentially
high-ratings television spectacle.
The suggested
debate, an idea first raised during a talk show appearance by the New
York billionaire, would have sidelined likely Democratic nominee Hillary
Clinton but given Sanders a huge platform ahead of California
Democratic primary.
A day after saying he would
welcome a Sanders debate, Trump called the idea "inappropriate,"
declaring that he should only face the Democrats' final choice.
"I will wait to debate the first-place finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton," Trump said in a statement.
Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, expressed disappointment on Friday, and sought to goad Trump into reconsidering.
"Well, Mr. Trump, what are you afraid of?" he said in a video clip posted on ABC News' Twitter account.
Trump
suggested broadcast networks were unwilling to go along with his demand
that at least $10 million raised from the encounter be donated to
charity.
“I’d love to debate Bernie,” he told a rally in Fresno, California. “But the networks want to keep the money for themselves.”
Sanders
is trailing Clinton in the race to secure their party’s nomination, but
opinion polls show he is slicing into her lead in California.
Clinton
has shown no interest in debating Sanders before the California
primary, which will be part of a final slate of nominating contests. It
is possible she will clinch the nomination by winning New Jersey earlier
that day, making the outcome in California superfluous.
The
former U.S. secretary of state has said she is looking forward to
debating Trump later this year ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.
Clinton
leads Trump by 4 percentage points in the most recent Reuters/Ipsos
poll. Democrats nationally remain evenly split between Clinton and
Sanders.
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