Demián Bichir isn't worried that Donald Trump will become the next president of the United States.
"I wouldn't really waste so much energy on small enemies. This guy will come in and out in two seconds," says the Mexican actor, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role as an undocumented immigrant facing deportation in the 2011 drama A Better Life.
I caught up with Bichir at Comic-Con, where he was promoting Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight.
"It's a matter of ignorance, and he really does not know much about our culture and what Mexicans have done for this country and that we continue to do that," Bichir said of the Republican hopeful. "Just the fact that he made those remarks proves again, you cannot buy cleverness at the store. He shot himself in the foot and he's paying for it."
Bichir, best known in the U.S. for his roles on Weeds and The Bridge, urged people to focus on the "actual immigrations that we all need" in the U.S.
"Not only those 13 million undocumented workers, but everyone else," he said. "We all live in this country and there isn't a single day that an immigrant is not involved in our daily lives. They make it better and happier and easier, and it's just absurd to ignore that. Not anymore. We're pushing really, really hard for that immigration reform and whoever brings that to the table, that's where the voters will go."
Trump created a firestorm of controversy—and a loss of business—when he targeted Mexican immigrants as "drug dealers" and "rapist."
In a speech earlier today, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton call Trump's remarks "appalling," according to Time magazine.
"When people and businesses everywhere rejected his hateful comments, did he apologize?" Clinton said. "No, he doubled down."