With less than 100 days until the election, former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee pumped up his campaign’s efforts to reach Hispanic-Latino voters.
On Tuesday, the Biden election campaign unveiled a plan to address the economic inequalities facing Hispanics-Latinos amid the health and financial strife of the COVID-19 pandemic.
THE BIDEN AGENDA FOR THE LATINO COMMUNITY plan consists of investing in Hispanics-Latinos’ economic mobility, ending racial disparities through investments, quality education, battling hate crimes and gun violence, as well as overhaul the immigration system.
“As a Latinx attorney, policy advisor, and activist: I see in Biden’s Latino Agenda as a comprehensive and transformative policy proposal”, said Adrian Velasquez, Esq., Massachusetts Democrat State Committee member.
“A characteristic of a good policy is addressing multiple intersectional issues while advancing equity and fairness for those in need. Biden’s Latino Agenda does precisely that. His policy set substantial benefit goals for disadvantaged communities while focusing in areas of clean energy and energy efficiency deployment; clean, accessible transit and transportation; affordable and sustainable housing; training and workforce development; remediation and reduction of legacy pollution; and development of critical clean water infrastructure. Those policies as they are set will have a positive impact on health and educational outcomes, closing disparities in the growing Latinx population.”
Eager to address issues confronting the Hispanic-Latino and Black communities, the former Vice President addressed members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) at their joint virtual conference in an interview.
In the plan outline, the Biden campaign criticizes President Trump for “waging an unrelenting assault on our values and our history as a nation of immigrants. It’s wrong, and it stops when Biden is elected President. The current Administration’s racist and wrong-headed immigration policies have created a humanitarian crisis on our border, undermined a key source of our economic strength, and weakened our moral standing in the world.”
The first thing he (Biden) would do if he were elected president would be to create a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. to flee life-threatening situations or those who were brought to the U.S. as children, reported the Latino Reporter, the NAHJ Student Project activated during its national conferences. An estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants have been the recipients of the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program better known as DACA.
According to the Latino Reporter Biden also said he plans to extend the Temporary Protection Status program, or TPS, which temporarily protects undocumented immigrants from deportation if they’re fleeing life-threatening crises in their countries of origin.
Trump was invited by the journalism organizations to address its members. “While we are disappointed that President Donald Trump has not acknowledged our invitation to participate, we hope he will come to understand the importance of addressing and engaging with the voices and documentarians of the communities that represent the future of America,” said organization presidents, NAHJ President Hugo Balta and NABJ President Dorothy Tucker in a joint statement. Balta is also the Owner of the Latino News Network (CTLN, MALN, NHLN).
Senior campaign officials also said, the plan committed to investing in healthcare, and the building of a Smithsonian Latino museum on the National Mall in Washington DC.
SUGGESTION: “It is of utmost importance that Puerto Rico have a voice” in the Biden campaign
With 32 million Latinos eligible to vote this year; Hispanics-Latinos are poised to make up the largest share of U.S. voters who are people of color in November’s election.
According to the Boston Planning and Development Agency, there are more than 319,000 Puerto Ricans living in Massachusetts, the fifth-largest Puerto Rican population in the United States after New York, Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The state’s Puerto Rican population has grown by 60% since 2000, and 20% since 2010.
Tatiana Matta, National Latino Advisor for the Biden campaign told El Nuevo Día that as part of her role, she hopes to collaborate with the presidential candidate and his team to enhance his plan for Puerto Rico as well as work towards strengthening the relationship with Puerto Rico’s diaspora.
Biden’s Hispanic-Latino plan comes as polling shows he is leading Trump in key battleground states, including Florida and Arizona, where this community will make up a decisive share of the electorate. Sixty-three percent of Hispanics-Latinos said they backed Biden, while 30 percent said they supported Trump, according to a new poll from the University of California Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.
In 2016, according to exit polls, Trump got 28% of the Latino vote.
