Dallas pastor helped McCain, but Trump ‘was not going to listen’

Evangelical pastor Mark Gonzales, a go-to political adviser for a generation of Texas Republicans, balked when he was asked to help Donald Trump.

He’s glad.

“Obviously he was not going to listen to us,” Gonzales said Thursday, as many on Trump’s Texas-heavy list of Hispanic advisers quit or threatened to.

The presidential nominee called Wednesday for reversing civil-rights-era immigration reforms, forcing out millions of foreigners here illegally and imposing restrictions that would all but prevent any return.

Gonzales said he and fellow Latino Republicans “told him today: ‘You don’t need us. You don’t want advice. So we are not going to be on your committee.”

Gonzales, 47, of Glenn Heights, is a pastor in Lancaster and leader of the Dallas-based Hispanic Action Network and other family-values groups.

He organizes activists against abortion and for traditional marriage. He also calls for prayerful compassion and consideration for peaceful workers, parents and grandparents who may have come illegally or stayed without permission.

In 2008, he chaired national Hispanic advisers to nominee John McCain. But when he was invited to help Trump, Gonzales asked to see the immigration platform first. (He was prematurely listed as an adviser.)

“There’s a whole lot of folks around the country now who are really furious,” he said

“We agree on so much. We agree the criminal element needs to be deported. We agree about drugs coming in and the risk of terrorism. You want a wall? OK, but we want to know what comes after the wall.”

In Trump’s speech, he called for deporting any foreigner in the country illegally on arrest, regardless of the offense or finding of guilt.

(In Texas, anyone can be arrested for any violation except speeding or driving a car in which there is an open container of alcohol.)

Gonzales said he did not know what to make of Trump’s oblique reference to 1965 rules or calling for limiting immigration “by population share within historical norms,” language used in Europe by opponents of refugee resettlement.

“He only said all the bad things and never said what immigrants contribute to America,” Gonzales said.

“There was no compassion in his message. There was no humanity. We know he’s tough on criminals. We want to know how he’ll treat the noncriminals. … And using the word amnesty — come on!”

Gonzales and his fellow evangelicals don’t want a pardon for anyone, he said. “We’re asking for a patriotic way for people to pay back taxes, learn English, get into the system and come out of the shadows. Nobody’s taking jobs. The people who come here are creating jobs.”

After all that, Gonzales said he will vote for Trump Nov. 8.

“That’s about the Supreme Court,” he said.

“He still has my vote. But he is not listening to us. We are not going to be able to work any miracles.”

Maybe Trump thinks he can.

This story was originally published September 1, 2016 at 8:04 PM with the headline "Dallas pastor helped McCain, but Trump ‘was not going to listen’."