A line of Tucson police officers stood between the rally attendees waiting in line and a group of protesters shouting "Trump is a racist, and so are his supporters!"
Carlos, who did not want to give his last name, held up a professionally printed sign that read "No Mas Trumpadas," which he said was a "play on words" based on Spanish word mamadas, or sucklings. He said he works as a manager of finance and operation at a local college and had come out to protest "the xenophobia that [Trump] is dusting up from the bottom of the sea floor, and it's creating this mass movement."
He added, "He's tapped into a nerve that taps into the fear and hate. Trump has so many boogeymen. If we don't stand up now, if he actually does what he says, it's going to be a really scary country to live in."
Nearby, two 17-year-old high school students held up a sign that read "We are Mexican, we or our family are not rapists, drug lords, lazy criminals."
One of the students said, "That's how he portrays us."
The high school students, though not eligible to vote in this year's election, said they were inspired by Trump's rhetoric to enter the political fray for the first time.
"At least he inspired me to do something," she said.
Nick Baldwin, a retired social worker, said he came to the protest to show support for "immigrants, who are not a danger to the United States."
While many of the protesters carried professionally made signs such as Black Lives Matter placards and pictures of Trump with with a confederate flag superimposed over an angry visage with teeth bared, others made their own out of cardboard and markers. The messages on these include "You can't comb over fascism" and "I'll trade you one Trump for 10,000 refugees."
Inside the convention center, a crowd of about 3,000 cheered as Brewster took the stage. Brewer, who is well known for her tough stance on undocumented immigration during her tenure and for sparring with President Barack Obama, drew large applause from the Tucson crowd.
"All of us who live in Arizona know a little bit about illegal immigration and what it has done to our great state, and the suffering and heartache that it brings to the families and the costs, and all of us believe in the rule of law - come legally!" Brewer said. "And Mr. Trump understands that, he believes in the rule of law and he's going to build that wall."
Arpaio took the stage to introduce Trump, welcomed by loud applause. He mentioned the protesters that had showed up earlier in Fountain Hills.
"Some demonstrators were trying to intimidate the rally up there, so we locked up some demonstrators and threw them in jail," Arpaio said. "And I hear there are some demonstrators outside trying to keep 2,400 to 2,500 people from coming here to hear Donald Trump's speech. I don't think that's right, where's the First Amendment? Actually, I think after this I'm going to go out and pay a visit to them."
Arpaio also suggested that he is not particularly popular in Tucson, which is in Pima County and is one of the few solidly liberal enclaves in the famously conservative Grand Canyon State.
"I've been to Tucson before. I go to the toilet and I have demonstrators," he said.
Trump took the stage and delivered a fairly standard stump speech for about an hour, which was interrupted a few times by protesters, one wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, which Trump called "disgusting."
He then told the crowd that there were some 2,500 people who were having trouble getting into the event because of the protesters.
"Outside right now, we have 2,500 people that can't get in, and it's so unfair to these people, and a few protesters are making it so there's a very narrow passageway."
A protester was allegedly punched and kicked inside the Tucson rally. A video of the altercation involving Bryan Sanders, who was also part of the protest outside the event before it started, had gone around the Internet by Sunday morning. Tucson Police arrested one man on suspicion of misdemeanor assault with injury, the Arizona Daily Start reported.
Trump lauded the crowd at the previous night's rally in Salt Lake City and predicted that he would win the Utah primary, which takes place on the same day as Arizona's.
"I think we are going to do pretty good," he said. "Based on last night's response, I think we are going to do well in Utah."
He then attacked Mitt Romney, a Mormon who lost the presidential election to Obama in 2012.
"Four years ago we had a candidate that choked like a dog," Trump said. "The Mormons love winners. And I think we are going to do well in Utah."
And once again, he pledged to stop undocumented immigration.
"We either have a border or we don't, and if we don't have a border, we don't have a country," he said."We want them to come into our country, but they're going to come into our country legally.
"And we are going to build a wall, a real wall, a major wall," he said, "and who's going to pay for the wall?"
The question elicited a shouting response from the he crowd: "Mexico!"
Trump continued, "We have a country that's so divided right now that it's disgraceful. We are going to have a country that's unified, not like it is now."
The front-runner also said that he wanted to renegotiate trade deals with China and Mexico and make it harder for U.S. companies to move overseas.
"We want trains that go 300 miles an hour like China has. We want infrastructure. We want our jobs back," he said. "I want Apple to build their products in the United States, not China."
When Trump noticed a woman holding up a sign that read "Latinos Support Trump," he invited her on stage and hugged her.
"Look at that sign! Latinos support Trump, I love you! Get me that sign, bring her up here," he said. "Latinos! I love you, darling. Come on over here, get her over here. I love that, that means so much to me."
He added, "I've fallen in love with her."
Trump added that he would "get rid of Common Core," "get rid of Obamacare" and replace it with something "so much better," "protect our second amendment rights" and take care of veterans and reduce taxes for the middle class.
And he pledged to "take our jobs back from China, back from Mexico."
He said, "I believe in free trade, but we need smart people at the top that know how to negotiate. We are going to start winning again."
A recent poll conducted by Arizona pollster Bruce Merrill with Westgroup Research has Trump winning the Arizona primary with 31 percent of the vote, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 19 percent and both Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio - who ended his campaign this past week - with 10 percent.
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"If they don't pay for that wall, then we should take away their foreign aid and then they will pay," Arpaio said.
