Kamala Harris, Latinos and Democrats

The United States can reform its “broken” immigration system while protecting the “Dreamers,”* the children of undocumented immigrants

The United States can reform its “broken” immigration system and at the same time protect “Dreamers,” the children of undocumented immigrants who came to the country by their parents’ hand and grew up there, said Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“[W]e can do both — create an earned pathway to citizenship and ensure that our border is secure. We can do both and we must do both,” Harris told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Young Leadership Conference.

The Democratic candidate’s remarks reflect both the need to solidify the bond with the growing Hispanic minority and the reality of a country where concerns about “uncontrolled” immigration and insecure borders are part of this year’s election agenda and a major political focus for Congress in 2025. The immigration and border issues are campaign arguments for the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, who, since his first campaign in 2015, has hammered against the “invasion” of migrants and border insecurity, reflected in the entry of drugs.

The formulation is part of a solid outreach and courting operation to the Hispanic minority in the United States, which, according to the latest estimates, has as many as 34 million potential voters, although only a little more than half are expected to go to the polls. Democrats are seeking, and appear to have succeeded in part, in regaining ground in a sector that has traditionally been favorable to them, although up to 40% have been receptive to Republican arguments on the economy, immigration and border issues.

But the same Republicans gave Democrats a political weapon when earlier this year they rejected a Democratic bill to toughen immigration policy and border enforcement because they wanted to use the issue as an election tool.

Trump himself made a second argument when he announced that, if elected, he would order a mass expulsion of undocumented immigrants. Sixty percent of the U.S. Hispanic population, an estimated 60 million people, are of Mexican origin.

The rest have Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican and Central and South American roots, especially Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Venezuelans expelled because of political and economic problems. According to demographic reports, the number of potential Latino voters is increasing by nearly 1 million per year, mainly as a result of population growth and, to a lesser extent, immigration.

Harris’ proposal implies a renewed acceptance of a compromise made by the Obama administration with the Dreamers. But at the same time, the announced Democratic tightening of its immigration policy raises the possibility of a split, at least according to pro-immigrant groups and those on the left of that party, according to a report by the online newspaper Axios.

*Editor’s note: They are commonly referred to as “Dreamers,” based on the DREAM Act, a bill introduced several times in different forms in Congress but never passed.