Let's End the Silence on Immigration

Posted by Cristina Jimenez, DMI Blog at 5:01 PM on October 14, 2008.

Unfortunately immigration has slowly vanished from the presidential campaign. A much discussed and contentious issue during the primary season, it is now avoided by both candidates.

To be fair, however, I must acknowledge that both candidates have tried to attract the Latino vote by airing Spanish language ads on immigration. But both candidates should remember that immigration does not only affect Latinos and that ALL Americans need to know their stands on immigration. The public deserves to know what exactly our next president will do about our country's dysfunctional immigration system and the 12 million undocumented immigrants living among us.

In the last two debates, neither Senator talked about immigration. But this Wednesday, the last presidential debate offers the candidates one more chance to lay out their plans to fix a broken immigration system. Wednesday's presidential debate will take place here in New York, in Hempstead Long Island, an epicenter of our country's immigration debate. And New Yorkers are taking this opportunity to urge both presidential candidates to address immigration.

The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) will be holding a press conference in their Manhattan office today at noon to discuss what they hope to hear from the candidates and describe unprecedented efforts to get out the immigrant vote. Tomorrow, immigrant advocates and supporters are expected to rally outside the debate at Hofstra University asking the candidates to stop "ignoring the 12 million elephants in the room." Senators McCain and Obama should take this opportunity to break the silence.

Tagged as: immigration, obama, election08, mccain, debates

Cristina is an Immigration Policy intern at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy.