America Ferrera to Trump: ‘Thank you’

America Ferrera, an award-winning Latino actress, has a message for Donald Trump after his controversial comments about Mexican immigrants: Thank you.

“You see, what you just did with your straight talk was send more Latino voters to the polls than several registration rallies combined! Thank you for that,” she writes in an open letter to the real-estate magnate turned GOP presidential contender published on the Huffington Post. 

{mosads}“Here we are pounding the pavement to get American Latinos to the polls, while your tactic proves most effective. Remarks like yours will serve brilliantly to energize Latino voters and increase turnout on election day against you and any other candidate who runs on a platform of hateful rhetoric.”

Trump has been dogged by criticism since the moment he entered the race for comments about Mexican immigrants coming to America illegally.

“They’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime,” Trump said in June.

“They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Ferrera notes the strong growth of the Latino population, more than twice that of the rest of the country from 2000-2012, while panning him for “living in an outdated fantasy of a bigoted America.”

“Without the Latino vote, there is no chance of you ever winning this election. If you don’t believe me, you could ask President Bush or you could even ask President Obama,” she writes.

“Your negativity and your poorly thought out speech ignited a fire in our community. Thank you, Mr. Trump!

The comments have prompted a handful of businesses to cut ties with Trump and drawn rebukes from some of his GOP presidential rivals, including Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.), and former Govs. Jeb Bush (Fla.) and Rick Perry (Texas.).

Despite the controversy, recent polls from Fox News and CNN/ORC show Trump in second place in the crowded GOP presidential field.