ICYMI: Voto Latino Co-Founder and President María Teresa Kumar Speaks on “Andrea Mitchell Reports” About President Biden’s Relief for Undocumented People
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 21, 2024
Contact: Diana Castaneda
VP of Communications
[email protected]
“There are 500,000 parents who are going to be able to safely put their child to bed tonight rid of anxiety.”
In Case You Missed It: Voto Latino’s Co-founder and President, María Teresa Kumar, spoke on “Andrea Mitchell Reports” about President Joe Biden’s executive action to provide relief for dreamers and undocumented immigrants. By taking steps to streamline pathways to lawful status for these hard-working people, President Biden is delivering for our communities and providing stability for these families and for American businesses. But our work is not done.
Key excerpts:
- “The decent fair thing to do, Andrea. We have been working with the White House for a decade. I recently found a picture of myself in the oval office in the White House speaking to President Obama about this very precise issue. So one thing that I do know, there are 500,000 parents who are going to be able to safely put their child to bed tonight rid of anxiety, that’s the decent part.”
- “What is the biggest contrast between Republicans and Democrats? Democrats care about immigrant families and this demonstrates it. And then you have the contrast of what the former president, twice impeached, is trying to do, what he promises to do. He does not only want to separate families but he wants to set up a cottage industry of detention centers all around the country that promises to mobilize and incarcerate anyone who looks “not American”, meaning not white.”
- “So this is a huge step forward not only for these families but for the local communities, for the economy of the local communities but it also reminds of where our roots are and that we are decent people and that we take care of families first.”
- “I would say that the president was put in a hard place because he had provided a bipartisan bill that Congress was served up in the senate and the republicans even though they negotiated with him, the most extreme members of their party didn’t want anything to do with it.
- “So this is an opportunity for them to go back to the table and say “this is actually how we respond to protecting our border.” I think when you talk to voters everywhere they want safe borders but they want to be fair and they want to be humanitarian.”
This election, decency is on the ballot. Today’s announcement has been a decade in the making and the result of Latinos showing up at the polls. But our work is not done. While this is a step in the right direction, there is much more that needs to be done. The alternative is devastation to our families. Voto Latino will continue registering, mobilizing, and informing Latino voters to empower our community and create a more robust and inclusive democracy and economy.
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Voto Latino is a grassroots political organization focused on educating and empowering a new generation of Latino voters, as well as creating a more robust and inclusive democracy. Since its founding, Voto Latino has registered over 1.4 million voters, mobilized tens of thousands of voters in the 2022 midterms, helping to defeat the so-called “red wave” and keep the Senate majority-Democrat. Voto Latino has also filed several lawsuits to defend voting rights in Texas, Arizona, and North Carolina ahead of the 2024 election.