Biden Blasts Trump for His ‘Assault’ on Latino Workers

Joe Biden

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By Giselle Balido

August 5, 2020

The Democratic presidential hopeful slams the president’s strategy to “cast out Latinos as being less than fully American” as he pledges to fight for racial equality and invest in Latino economic mobility.

FLORIDA — As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday that she expects bipartisan agreement on a second stimulus package by week’s end, Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden promised to reverse a rule that denies federal stimulus checks to American citizens married to immigrants who are in the country without legal status.

Calling the Trump administration’s treatment of Latinos who work in the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic “an assault on Latino dignity”, Biden told Janet Murguia, president of UNIDOS US, a major Hispanic advocacy group, that “we have to make sure that no American citizen is penalized for being part of a mixed-status family.”

RELATED: How Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” Plan Will Help Latinos and Other People of Color

Currently, the law providing stimulus checks to Americans who qualify states that a married couple filing a joint tax return is ineligible for help if one member of the couple does not have a Social Security number. According to the Migration Policy Institute, this law affects approximately 1.2 million immigrants without legal status who are married to a U.S. citizen.

Vows to Protect DACA Recipients

During the online conversation with UNIDOS US, Biden also said that as president he will protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. The former vice president expressed that the young people who were brought illegally to the United States by their parents often consider the United States their home; in fact, for the majority of them it’s the only home they know. Protecting them “[is] just basic humanity, basic decency,” he said.

Slams Trump Divisive Strategy

Trump’s immigration restrictions, undermining of labor rights and workers’ wages, and disastrous handling of the devastation caused by hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, are the result of an administration that continues to “cast out Latinos as being less than fully American,” Biden said in a news release.

RELATED: Trump and Biden Are Waging an All-Out Ad War en Español

Goals for Latinos

On Tuesday, the Democrat’s campaign unveiled its Build Back Better by Advancing Racial Equity Across the American Economy plan, which focuses on several major areas, including:

  • Investing in Latino economic mobility by Increasing the funding of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), which the Trump administration has tried to reduce or eliminate, to boost Latino and Black business ownership, and by ensuring that all small business relief efforts are specifically designed to aid businesses owned by Black and Latino people.
  • Expanding access to affordable health care through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including doubling the funding for the community health centers that often provide care to undocumented immigrants
  • Reforming the immigration system by prioritizing a comprehensive immigration reform that will give some 11 million undocumented immigrants a roadmap to citizenship. 
  • New tax credits for those who care for children, seniors, and disabled people. The plan would also include aiding unpaid caregivers who take care of family members, offering them tax and Social Security credits.
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