Kamala Harris said that a new term for Donald Trump would take the United States “backwards” and warned of the “mass deportations” promised by her rival, in a speech on Wednesday at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) conference.
“As we fight to lead our nation toward a brighter future, Donald Trump and his extremist allies will continue to try to push us back,” she said in Washington before an enthusiastic audience that interrupted her several times with applause.
“We all remember what they did to separate families,” said the vice president and Democratic candidate for the November 5 elections.
Under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy from 2017 to January 2021, thousands of children were separated from their families to discourage the massive influx of migrants, then mainly from Central America. Many of them were reunited during his term and others during that of his Democratic successor Joe Biden.
“Now they have promised to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation in American history,” Kamala Harris warned.
“Mass raids?”
“Mass raids? Mass detention camps? What are they talking about?” Harris asked, and she defended a diametrically opposed approach: creating a path “to citizenship” for millions of migrants and ensuring security on the border with Mexico.
“We can do both and we must do both,” he said.
For about 20 minutes, Harris, 59, outlined some of the measures in her economic program, the issue that most interests Latinos, according to polls.
He promised to combat price increases by large companies, to facilitate access to housing, for example with aid for first-time buyers, and to extend the tax credit for children. These initiatives are aimed at the working and middle class.
She also addressed the right to abortion, one of the main themes of her campaign. She said that 40% of Latinas in the United States live in a state with restrictions or bans on abortion and that she, “as president,” would “proudly” sign a “law to restore reproductive freedoms.”
With seven weeks to go before the election, Harris is trying to mobilize voters, especially in seven swing states that decide the election results in a country where the president is elected by indirect suffrage.
Advantage in polls
According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, Harris leads Trump by at least 5 points in three of those states: Pennsylvania and Michigan, and by a narrower margin in Wisconsin.
A candidate who fails in these three states would practically lose the possibility of being elected at the national level. Donald Trump did so in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.
More than 36 million Latinos will be eligible to vote in November, or nearly 15% of the electorate, according to a study by the Pew Research Center, but only half of them actually go to the polls.
They are very influential in two other swing states: Arizona, where they make up 25% of the electoral roll, and Nevada (22%).
Over the past few days, the Democrat has multiplied her messages for the Latino community, with interviews and events focused on young people.
Most Latinos vote for Democrats in presidential elections, but Republicans have gained ground in recent years.
Trump, 78, will hold a rally in a town in New York state, three days after an alleged second assassination attempt against him in Florida (south).
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