Trump-Allied Group Launches Spanish-Language Ads Warning Noncitizens Against Voting

A conservative group is launching a Spanish-language advertisement in critical battleground states that strikes two drastically different tones — first touting voting as patriotic but then warning that it is illegal for noncitizens to cast ballots in federal elections and that doing so can be a crime punishable by deportation.

The ad campaign, shared exclusively with NBC News, was paid for by the Article III Foundation, a dark-money group linked to Mike Davis, a controversial ally of Donald Trump. Voter registration deadlines are nearing, and early voting is beginning in states with sizable Latino populations, like Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

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Trump has frequently argued without evidence that immigrants are being let into the country to help Democrats win elections and that local officials are intentionally turning a blind eye {snip}

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One target for the ad is Reading, Pennsylvania, a city of about 95,000 people 65 miles northwest of Philadelphia, where two-thirds of the population is Latino and where Trump’s campaign opened a “Latino Americans for Trump” office over the summer. In addition to targets in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania, the ad is also being run in selected Georgia and Wisconsin towns and cities beginning for three weeks, with plans to continue.

Totaling $1 million, the spend is just a fraction of the more than $400 million that has been spent on ads in the presidential race across those states since Vice President Kamala Harris took over the top of the Democratic ticket. But the amount is significant considering that Republican groups regularly spend far less on Spanish-language ads than their Democratic counterparts.

The new spot, titled “Non-Citizens Cannot Vote in Federal Elections,” will air on ESPN Deportes, Galavisión, Univision, Fox Deportes and other Spanish-language cable channels, as well as daytime Spanish-language talk radio, the source said. It will also air on traditional and streaming cable and radio.

The spot begins with images of people casting their ballots while an English language subtitle reads, “In America, voting is a sacred right.” A U.S. soldier appears on screen shortly afterward, under which a chyron reads: “It is a right that men and women have been willing to lay down their lives to protect for centuries.”

The ad then shifts in tone, warning that it is “illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, including the 2024 election,” according to the English subtitles, and that doing so is a “federal crime and deportable offense.”

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