Trump tempers comments on immigrants in first SC appearance

While Donald Trump loudly blasted illegal immigration as he spoke Tuesday inside Sun City Hilton Head’s Magnolia Hall, more than 60 members of the Lowcountry Immigration Coalition held a silent protest outside.

Trump finished his remarks and darted to a black SUV waiting next to the coalition’s gathering without comment.

“We felt our silent protest was well-received,” coalition co-chair George Kanuck said. “We’ve been out here sweltering the whole time, but we know he saw us when he went by.”

Trump has faced growing pressure and business fallout over his comments last month that demonized Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and criminals. Trump subsequently has come under fire for comments questioning whether 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona and former Vietnam War POW, was a war hero.

Outside Magnolia Hall, Immigration Coalition members held signs that read “United Against Bigotry” and “How many feet can Donald insert in mouth?”

Inside the hall, Trump blasted the nation’s existing immigration policies during his first S.C. campaign stop.

But he was markedly less aggressive than his previous contentious commentary on the issue. “I want people to come into the country, but they have to do it through the legal process,” he told the crowd.

On Tuesday, he again blamed the “media dissection” of his comment and repeated his recent claims that Hispanic voters actually favor Trump, who is leading the Republican polls.

“I have a lot of respect for Mexico, by the way,” Trump said. “I love the Mexican people. I employ thousands of them. They love me; they love me.”

Members of the immigration coalition disagree, saying Trump’s border security philosophies are draconian and disrespectful to the nation’s growing Hispanic communities.

“I believe he’s a racist,” said Gerri Heilbraun, who held a “Donald Duck NOT Donald Trump” sign. “I think we need one world, and I think he’s making more of a problem.”

Of the 60 or so protesters in Sun City, only a handful were Hispanic.

More than 100 Hispanic members of the coalition from Bluffton and Hilton Head Island were unable to attend the protest because Sun City will admit visitors through its gates only if they have a pass from a current resident. Kanuck and Sun City members of the coalition felt uneasy bending the community’s rules to call in a mass of passes for their protest, so many would-be protesters were cut out of the event.

That irony was not lost on Kanuck. But he said it still was important for the residents who could to “stand up for what we believe in.”

“Immigrants are the lifeblood of the Lowcountry in so many ways,” Kanuck said. “So we couldn’t stand by as someone tarred them with hatred and bigotry.”

This story was originally published July 21, 2015 at 5:23 PM with the headline "Trump tempers comments on immigrants in first SC appearance."