Vice President Kamala Harris made her pitch to undecided Latino voters Thursday night during an unscripted town hall hosted by Univision in Las Vegas. There, she tried to convey the message that, unlike her opponent, she is a champion of the middle class, and vowed to continue President Joe Biden's asylum crackdown at the border.
During the event, voters asked questions in English and Spanish about a variety of topics that mattered most to them, ranging from the economy to immigration and healthcare.
On immigration, she reiterated her support and empathy for Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children, while also underscoring the need to have a tough-on-border approach.
Jesus Aispuro, a first-time voter from California, told Harris he has friends who are Dreamers. He pressed her on what she'd do to protect this group under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, to which she responded that she'd prioritize an immigration plan that establishes a pathway to citizenship.
That response coincides with a statement released by her campaign about a federal appeals court over the fate of DACA. The campaign issued a statement during the town hall saying Harris "will always stand with Dreamers and keep families together" and urging Congress to pass "an earned pathway to citizenship for these young people."
During another question where an audience member asked her what her plans were to support "that subgroup of immigrants who have been here their whole lives" but have been forces to "live and die in the shadows," Harris called the country's immigration system "broken" and pointed out that the first bill proposed by the Biden-Harris administration would have created an earned pathway to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants.
She then quickly turned to the topic of the southern border, condemning Trump for helping kill a bill that would have devoted more resources to securing it, a common message the Harris campaign has been trying to drive home.
"Real leadership is about solving the problems on behalf of the people," she said.
The Vice President also received a series of intense and emotional questions on other top-priority issues, allowing her to showcase a greater degree of empathy and humanity than in other interviews with major news outlets she's carried as her last push for the White House.
Wendy Solares— a mother who houses her children, as well as her parents— asked Harris what she would do to help the middle class.
"I know prices are too high, still. You know prices are too high, still. And we have to deal with it," she said, before listing out her economic plan to lower costs through being more aggressive on price gouging by grocery companies and by issuing tax credits for parents and down payment assistance for first time home buyers.
Likewise, Martha Rodriguez, a 62-year-old homeless woman whose medical conditions— a heart attack and "long COVID"— caused her to lose her job and income, asked Harris how she'd help disabled citizens get their insurance faster through Social Security.
The Democratic nominee highlighted that she pushed to designate long COVID as a condition that should be covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that as president, she would work to make sure medical debt does not affect credit scores.
"The point is being very simple, frankly, which is that all people, regardless of disability, should have equal access to housing, to job opportunities, to education, and again, community, and there's still a lot of work that we have to do in that regard," she said.
The town hall comes as Harris maintains a lead with Latino voters ahead of November, despite her numbers being lower than that of Democrats in previous cycles.
For instance, a national NBC News/Telemundo/CNBC poll released last month found Harris at 54% support among registered Latino voters, compared to 40% for Trump. Support for Democratic presidential candidates among Latinos has been declining each cycle, with Biden earning 61% of the Latino vote in 2020, Hillary Clinton 66% in 2016 and Barack Obama more than 70% in 2012.
Trump will also appear at an Univision town hall in Miami, which will air Wednesday, Oct. 16.
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