While the president Joe Biden has made clear his intentions to protect immigrants who have been in the United States for several years, former President Donald Trump’s agenda is focused on deportation.
Civil organizations that promote voting among Latinos, Voto Latino and Voto Latinx, highlighted the importance of this population of voters recognizing the differences between two opposing projects on immigration.
This after President Biden gave an order to offer a path to citizenship to undocumented spouses of Americans and thousands of ‘dreamers’.
“President Biden’s executive action to protect undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens and expedite the path to obtaining legal status is a fair and decent first step. It will keep families together, remove barriers to legal status, and provide stability to our communities,” said Voto Latino co-founder and president María Teresa Kumar.
Yadira Sánchez, co-founder and executive director of Poder Latinx, expressed a similar position.
“This is part of the plan that the Biden-Harris Administration has taken from day one. And if, send a message to votersespecially voters tell us that this president wants to keep families together and does not want to separate them, which is a big difference from what we are hearing, especially with the MAGA Republicans, who want to separate families to deport them,” Sánchez said in an interview.
Although President Biden has implemented recent policies to reduce irregular immigration at the border and accelerate deportations, his domestic policies have sought to offer options to immigrants, such as granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to immigrants from Venezuela, the largest group growth of immigrants.
On the other hand, the former president Trump has clearly expressed his plan for mass detentions and deportationsin addition to the creation of concentration camps in military installations.
“On the one hand, we have an extremist former president who wreaked havoc, anxiety and anguish in our communities, in every corner of our nation. Trump has promised to redouble his cruelty if he is elected again in November,” warns Voto Latino. “The contrast between these policies and President Biden’s leadership and his commitment to a prosperous America cannot be understated. An American child will sleep peacefully and without anxiety tonight, knowing that his mother is now protected, because President Biden led and did not cower.”
An “exciting” decision
With his order, President Biden will allow more than half a million families not to be separated when processing a Green Card for the partner of an American.
Regarding the ‘dreamers’, President Biden offers them the possibility of applying for an H1-B work visa, which will allow them to eventually apply for a Green Card and naturalization.
“It was very exciting, to be honest, I was present here at the White House when he announced these new actions to keep our immigrant families together,” Sánchez said, visibly moved. “The president is using his executive power to provide this type of protection to immigrants and also to keep families together.”
The importance of the Latino vote
Sánchez insisted that Latino voters must remember these actions of President Biden when voting.
“We have to remember that he wanted to pass immigration reform… but no, it was possible because the Republicans did not vote for it,” he recalled.
As soon as he arrived at the White House in 2021, President Biden sent an immigration reform proposal that has been stalled in Congress.
“The president cannot give us immigration reform, because he does not have the support of Congress,” Sánchez recalled. “That’s why we have to go out and vote, elect representatives who are going to be champions and work with the president to pass immigration reform, that will be the only permanent solution.”
In states like Nevada, Texas, Georgia, among others, Latino voters are key to determining the winner of the presidential race on November 5.
Keep reading:
• Biden’s order would allow more than a million undocumented immigrants to apply for a Green Card
• Thousands of undocumented immigrants will be able to obtain a Green Card with Biden’s new order
• Biden celebrated his new immigration plan and assured that it is a “common sense” measure