SAN DIEGO — The Sleeping Giant is wide awake. He's fed up. He's furious. And, unfortunately for MAGA, he's wearing a sticker that reads: "I Voted."

The Nov. 3 election is still a few days away. But already, more than 40 million Americans have voted early. About half of those ballots were cast in person in states where polling places are open, while the other half were sent by mail.

Thanks to the Election Lab at the University of Florida, which tracks early voting, we know at least two things about the early votes: they're breaking for Democrats, and many were cast by Latinos.

— According to the Election Lab, registered Democrats cast roughly 45% of the early ballots while registered Republicans cast 31%. Another 24% were cast by voters who aren't registered with either party. Of course, Republicans are known to more often vote on Election Day. So they'll have a chance to make up some of that deficit.

— Latino early voting is going gangbusters, outpacing what it was in the 2022 and 2024 elections. Simon Rosenberg, a longtime Democratic strategist, told Time that the surge in Latino participation is "a universal trend that we're seeing all across the country." According to VoteHub, in Texas, Latinos account for 24% of the early votes.

This is no surprise. When The New York Times analyzed public opinion polls, it found Latinos breaking for Democrats over Republicans, 64% to 29%. Last month, A New York Times/Siena poll found President Donald Trump's approval among Latino voters languishing at only 26%, compared with 38% among voters overall. On issues ranging from immigration to gas prices to the cost of living, Latinos preferred Democrats by wide margins.

Nearly 12 million Latinos cast ballots in 2022, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund.

This year, political observers predict the turnout among Latino voters could be even higher than it was four years ago.

Which brings us back to the giant. That imagery has long been used to describe the U.S. Latino population, which is known not just for its size but also its passivity.

Naturalized Mexican immigrants and native-born Mexican Americans — who together make up about 60% of U.S. Latinos — set the tone. We work hard. We pay taxes. We start businesses. We employ people. We respect authority.

There's also stuff we don't do. We don't riot. We don't demand reparations. We don't think like victims, even though we have been victimized. And we don't whine about how we're going to lose our jobs to immigrants, DEI, globalization, AI or trade deals.

Latinos don't make trouble. Yet, during Trump 2.0, trouble has repeatedly found us. Whether it is through racial profiling, immigration enforcement, elimination of diversity initiatives or efforts to make English the official language of the United States, the administration is desperate to marginalize America's largest minority.

Personally, I think the White House is scared. The giant is bigger than ever, representing nearly 70 million Latinos who make up about 20% of the U.S. population.

Those are impressive numbers. Say, how are those ICE raids working out?

That hunting spree was meant to terrorize anyone with brown skin — undocumented, lawful permanent resident, U.S. citizen, whatever. The directive to go after "the worst of the worst" was replaced by ICE agents being told to "pick up anybody." That is, anybody who fits the profile.

The ICE raids did not make America white again. Many Americans assume that every Latino in the United States just arrived last week. But most of these people are U.S. citizens. In fact, in the Southwest states like Texas or Arizona, many are the great-great-grandchildren of U.S. citizens. They have the right to vote because they got it at birth.

Yet the immigration sweeps did accomplish one thing. They raised the temperature and created an army of angry voters who are hungry for payback.

The White House was tipped off. Last month, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Cuban American Republican in her third term, filmed a television ad warning President Trump that he had "gone too far" by casting too wide a net on immigration.

"The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today," she said.

That betrayal left Latinos angry and frustrated. Now they're taking it out on Trump — and any other Republican foolish enough to stand beside him.

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Parker Johnson at Unsplash