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Collier activist mobilizing Hispanic voters

Posted at 6:46 PM, Mar 10, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-10 18:46:55-05

Hispanic community leaders say that the 2016 year is the time to make their voices heard.

"What(ever) the people need to do to register, to be a citizen...we recommend this to the people," Victor Valdes, a civil rights attorney in Golden Gate, said Thursday.

Valdes said that he is committed to the idea that every legal American should exercise their right to vote, especially in minority communities. He said that a big issue for many Hispanic voters is immigration, and he thinks that immigration laws in the U.S. need to be improved. 

"The main thing is to go and vote according to you own brain," Valdes said. "And think: what do you think about immigration?"

He said that coming from communist Cuba, he knows the value of the right to vote, and wants others to know it too. 

"Don't lose the opportunity," he said.

Hispanic voters make up about 15 Florida's Democrats. Across the U.S., Hispanic voters have accounted for about 10 percent of that party's primaries this year.