With one month left until the general elections, a coalition of 24 organizations dedicated to the defense of immigrants has made official its support for the candidacy of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. FIRM Action, the political arm of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), announced this Thursday its support for the vice president at a conference in which several leaders of civil rights groups present in 26 States participated. “We will not stand by while immigrants continue to be the punching bag of politicians in this election,” said FIRM Action Board President Angélica Salas. “Let us respond by mobilizing our families, friends and neighbors and ensuring that they cast their vote at the polls for Kamala Harris,” he asked before recalling the potential of the migrant vote, which in four years has added 3.5 million new citizens. .
In the 30 days left before the elections, these organizations plan to knock on the doors of more than three million voters, go to community centers and use social networks to ask them to vote for the Democratic candidate. The threats and insults that the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, and his followers have been repeating for months have not fallen on deaf ears. “If elected, Trump will destroy and separate our families with mass deportations, eliminate DACA – a program that grants residency to migrants who arrived as children – and temporary protected status. “It will close all access to asylum and unleash hatred against us throughout the nation,” warned Salas, who also chairs the Californian migrant defense organization CHIRLA.
Trump has been toughening his speech against migrants, announcing the largest deportation in history, blaming them for the country’s ills, such as rising housing prices, and criminalizing them, as in the crazy accusation that Haitians in the city of Springfield, Ohio , they eat pets. In response, these organizations campaign against them. Salas warns: “We remind this country that immigrants do have political power.”
In 2022 there were almost 24 million citizens born outside the United States with the right to vote, 10% of the electorate. Its growth of 32% in a decade far exceeded the increase in the country’s adult population born in the country, which was only 8% between 2012 and 2022, according to data from Pew Research.
Vanessa Cárdenas, president of the Washington-based organization America’s Voice, acknowledged that the Republican message has spread fear among the migrant population and compared the two positions on migration, which “are rooted in different worldviews and visions of the United States.” . Harris recognizes that equal and orderly immigration and the stories, dreams and sacrifices of the immigrant generation are among our greatest strengths. However, Trump’s vision is full of darkness and misinformation, and manages to divide on issues of race and immigration.
Cárdenas recalled the importance of immigration in key states for the outcome of the elections, such as Arizona, where 16% of the workforce is migrant, or Nevada, where the entertainment and services industry would collapse without the work of Latinos.
From Nevada, the president of the state organization PLAN Action, stressed that the November 5 event is “a choice between organizing the future and taking us back to a past of uncertainty that we have already experienced, and to which I definitely do not want to return.” . In this State, where 14% of voters were born outside the United States, the margin of victory in the last elections was very narrow and this year the race is even closer. Martin, who says that in Nevada Trump is seen as a fraudster, points out that “the new Latino vote could be the margin of victory,” since one in five voters is Hispanic. That is why he assures that they are carrying out a massive campaign to ask to vote for Harris. Additionally, PLAN is campaigning for several initiatives, such as school boards and abortion, issues that Nevada is taking to the polls, because “those things may have more effect on your daily life than the role of the president.”
From Wisconsin, another of the key states in the elections, the president of Voces de la Frontera, Christine Newman, highlighted the need to mobilize the Latino community of the State, in which 80% of the workers in its dairy industry are migrants , the majority of them being undocumented. Newman defended his support for Harris because “she knows how to distinguish between members of cartels and organized crime and working families.” “Immigrants are what keep this country going and we look forward to working with her in the first 100 days of the new Administration to advance policies for people who have been here for decades and, hopefully, through a legislative Congress that can fix a broken system,” he said.
Run away from the past
One of the most exposed reasons for supporting Harris, apart from the threats of what a Trump victory could mean for their communities, is the experience lived during his previous presidency. Adonis Flores, spokesperson for Michigan United Action, suffered the effects of the deportation policy on his family when his brother was expelled from the country in 2017. In addition to Latinos, his organization campaigns among the Arab community. “We want to remind you that we have a better opportunity to seek policies and help for our families in the Middle East, as well as on the border and here at home, with Harris as president,” he says.
Theo Oshiro, president of Se Hace Camino, which operates nationwide, also recalled the consequences of Trump’s mandate, with the separation of the families of many migrants who were expelled. “We cannot go back,” and admitted that, in addition to voting for Harris, “the challenge is to push the Administration to ensure justice for the immigrant community.”
“It is a question of survival,” warned Gustavo Torres, president of CASA en Acción.