Harris has resurrected a commitment to comprehensive immigration reform that opens pathways to citizenship

▲ Donald Trump recounted his assassination attempt in detail and promised the largest deportation of undocumented immigrants in US history on his return to social network X, during a conversation plagued by technical glitches with Elon Musk, the owner of X, who attributed the deficiencies to a massive attack. The conversation between the two was friendly, AP reported, but revealed little new information about the Republican’s plans if he wins a second term. The composite of images of both is from the archives.Afp Photo

David Brooks and Jim Cason

Correspondents

The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 13, 2024, p. 27

New York and Washington, D.C., Latinos eligible to vote have increased from 14.3 million in 2000 to more than 36 million today, according to the Pew Research Center, and in the 2024 presidential race, their participation could once again define who wins the White House.

This year, Latinos are projected to make up nearly 15 percent of the electorate, nearly double what they made up in 2000, when they made up just 7.4 percent. The states with the most Latino voters are California, with a quarter of the total, followed by Texas, Florida, New York and Arizona.

Part of their potentially decisive role has to do with where they are concentrated. Latinos make up nearly a quarter of the population in Nevada and Arizona, two of the so-called swing states that will determine the presidential election; they also make up 4 to 6 percent of five other swing states, enough to make the difference between victory or defeat for the presidential candidates.

According to polls, Republican candidate Donald Trump has been gaining more support among Latinos, especially due to his message of economic policies and some socially conservative positions that appeal to part of the Latino community. For its part, Kamala Harris’ campaign has just released its first television spot in Spanish and has just been endorsed by the oldest Latino electoral organization in the country: LULAC. The dispute for this vote will be vital for both contenders during the next three months.

The immigration issue has an impact on part of the Latino vote, and in the face of an openly anti-immigrant proposal from the Republican candidate, Harris and the Democrats have not yet managed to define a clear message. Although Harris has endorsed President Joe Biden’s proposals to impose greater controls on the border with Mexico and largely annul the right to asylum, she is also promoting a broader proposal on migration. She has talked about an immigration package with pathways to citizenship, with the idea that those here (without documents) deserve a chance to earn it, as well as having a secure border.explained Democratic Representative Robert Garcia in an interview with MSNBC. She will have a way to approach this fairly and firmly, she understands that there are people in this country who are like me, like my family, who deserve a chance to earn a path to citizenship.he said.

In a speech at a campaign rally in Arizona on Friday, Harris reaffirmed Democrats’ commitments to strengthen security with more Border Patrol agents to stop undocumented immigrants crossing from Mexico. I was the Attorney General of a border state (California). I went after transnational gangs, drug cartels, and human traffickers. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won.In a campaign video released last week in English and Spanish, Harris pledges to Hire thousands more Border Patrol agents to combat fentanyl trafficking and human trafficking.

But it has also resurrected a commitment to work toward opening pathways to citizenship, a theme that had been increasingly absent from the Democratic electoral narrative for more than a year. We know our immigration system is broken, and we know what it will take to fix it: comprehensive reform. That includes increased border security and a path to citizenship that is earned.Harris told the audience at the event in Glendale, Arizona.

A new poll in the six key states that could determine the national outcome of the presidential election — Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina — found that two-thirds of Latino voters view Harris’s call for creating a path to citizenship for immigrants, combined with strengthening border security, positively. At the same time, the BSP Research poll found that Latino voters do not know Harris well and that her overall support in those states remains at just 55 percent.

Harris’s Latino media director, Maca Casado, argues that the candidate has a long history of supporting priority issues for Latinos, from expanding health care to addressing gun violence. Vice President Harris’ campaign knows the political power of Latinos and is the only one working aggressively to make our case, as we will not take their votes for granted.Casado said in an interview with the AP agency.

Whether all of this will succeed in encouraging the Latino vote in favor of Harris remains to be seen. Although immigration is always an important issue for the Latino electorate, the economy remains the most important issue for this sector.

Sixty-three percent of Latinos in the six key states view the economy and cost of living as issues of greatest importance to them when deciding who to vote for, according to the BSP Research poll. That same survey found that 60 percent of Latinos agree with Harris’s popular progressive message of raising taxes on big corporations and holding them accountable and attacking Trump as a representative of the wealthy.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Harris is convincing voters to turn out at the polls, particularly in the states of Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, where the Latino vote could determine the outcome; the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) estimated that the Latino turnout rate could reach 855,000 in Arizona, almost 200,000 in Georgia and 276,000 in Nevada, something that could easily determine the presidential contest in those states.

But Harris and Democrats have yet to reach the level of Latino support they have historically needed to win the White House, according to an Axios analysis evaluating data going back 50 years. It noted that when presidential candidates get less than 64 percent of the Latino vote, they almost always lose. Harris’ Latino support level, according to the most recent polls, is at or just above 55 percent — much better than Biden’s level — but it is a clear indicator that more than Spanish-language ads will be required in the next 84 days before the election to win the necessary — and perhaps essential — Latino support.