By Cristopher Pineda, Nov. 5, 2024
Since the 2020 election, 4.1 million Latinos in the U.S. have become eligible to vote, and many are the first in their families to do so, according to Pew Research Center. First-generation Latino voters are impactful to the election because of their unique insights, as immigrants and citizens of the United States.
There has been a continuous increase in the number of Latino voters each year. From the 2020 election, the number of eligible voters increased by 153% from 32.3 million to a projected 36.2 million.
Diana Martinez, an animal science student at Cal Poly Pomona, is not only the first in her family to vote but it is her first time voting.
“What inspired me to vote was my dad, since he isn’t able to vote, I wanted to be a voice for him,” Martinez said. “It is a privilege to vote since many people don’t get that opportunity.”
The average age of Latino voters is 39 years old, while the national average is 48. According to Pew Research Center, many Latino families immigrated to the U.S. while having children naturalized or born in the U.S. and those children are the eligible voters. However, the older generations are left without a say, since around 19% of Latinos are not U.S. citizens and hence not eligible to vote.
Alexa Miranda, an environmental biology student, said she feels responsible for addressing immigration policies because of her family’s citizenship status.
“My parents are immigrants, so my vote really does matter in these issues because I do have family that is being directly affected by new immigration policies,” Miranda said. “They don’t have a voice, so it is my job to vote for them.”
According to Miranda, Latinos care most about immigration policies from both candidates, Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris’s campaign has focused on border security and root causes of migration to the U.S., such as poverty and violence throughout Central America. Harris plans to reverse the restrictive measures introduced by the Trump administration, allowing expanded protections on those seeking asylum from prosecution.
Trump’s campaign has focused his policies on immigration by promising to carry the ‘largest domestic deportation operation in American history,’ which requires the relocating of troops to the U.S.-Mexican border, Immigration and Custom Enforcement raids of workplaces and construction of more ICE detention facilities.
Trump also intends to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented parents.
Claudia Salazar Jimenez, an assistant professor of Latin American literature and creative writing, detailed the first term of Trump’s presidency while she was teaching at Brooklyn College in New York, New York. There, she saw immigrant and first-generation students struggle with the Trump’s administration immigration policies.
“A student’s dad was detained and disappeared for two days, and they had no idea where he was,” Jimenez said. “For me, it was reminiscent of dictatorial governments within Latin America, and I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t supposed to happen here; how is it possible my student doesn’t know where his dad is.’”
First-generation Latinos, such as Jimenez, have already seen the impact Trump’s first term has had on Latino families. During Trump’s first presidency, the ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy separated over 5,000 children from their parents without any way to track their family members.
Jimenez said she fears of what could happen during Trump’s second term if these very restrictive policies had happened during his first term.
Republican Vice-Presidential nominee JD Vance suggested his party is willing to deport immigrants covered from the deferred action for childhood arrivals at a campaign rally, Oct. 22.
Jimenez, a queer Latina woman, also underscored the importance of voting as certain key points made by the Republican candidate would go against her existence and against other people who identify as queer.
“The Republicans demonstrated that any right gained before is not certain and is always in danger,” said Jimenez. “There are also rumors of the Trump campaign going against the validity of (same-sex) marriage, which would affect me directly.”
Education is also a very important issues for this year’s ballot. Trump has discussed getting rid of the Department of Education entirely and wants to change the curriculums to exclude critical race theory and gender studies.
Making cuts to education worldwide would be cutting funding for Federal Work Study and rescinding $ 2 billion from the Pell Grant reserve funds.
Martinez said she is very concerned with the educational fund cuts.
“Being the first one in my family to attend university was not only a dream of mine but a dream of my parents, and this dream is not possible without FAFSA,” Martinez said. “Having a policy such as student loan forgiveness is vital for a lot of first-generation students because not many are able to afford higher education.”
More locally, certain propositions on the ballot have sparked a sense of urgency to get more people informed and motivated to vote.
Jimenez has specifically been active advocating for Proposition 3, which protects Californians freedom to marry regardless of race or gender. The prop also changes the language in California’s constitution to remove discriminatory language and protect personal freedoms of Californians.
“Proposition 3 is about my life and is a small way of intimate activism since it impacts the people close to you about voting for those you care about,” Jimenez said.
The 2024 election is very important for many first-generation Latino voters, and both Trump and Harris are competing for their votes.
Harris’ campaign has made efforts to invest toward Latino outreach specifically in battleground states like Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Harris’s efforts are guided toward first-generation Latinos at colleges and educational institutions. Harris’ campaign focuses on reminding voters of Trump’s harsh immigration policies and rhetoric during his campaign.
Trump’s administration focus is not on the first-generation vote, rather Latino voters of second and third-generation Americans who are more concerned with economical struggles. Although Harris still has Latino support on immigration, abortion and public education policies.
“I understand why some people may think that both candidates have policies that could hurt our communities,” Miranda said. “But some policies hurt even more, so it is our job to still vote because we all have a right to vote for who we think is right.”
Feature image courtesy of Unsplash
