“The lies that President Trump spewed during his State of the Union Speech are nearly impossible to comprehend,” Hector Sanchez Barba, CEO and Executive Director of Mi Familia Vota, said in a statement on the President’s State of the Union address. “Mi Familia Vota knows that on some of the top priorities for the Latino community—like health care, the economy and immigration—the President’s administration has been a catastrophic failure for our community. To make his speech even more pernicious, he gave Rush Limbaugh, a figure who promotes hate, extremism and violence against our families, the highest civilian award possible.”
Mi Familia Vota is working on the frontlines of fighting for our democracy through civic participation. As part of our Prioridades2020 campaign, we’ve listed critical review points below from the SOTU on health care, the economy and immigration. We will use this information to educate and galvanize the communities we work in.
The Economy
The President’s policies have only benefited the super-rich. His tax cut has contributed to a historical concentration of wealth in the upper class and hurt our middle and working class families.The President is taking credit for record low minority unemployment that is actually a product of the previous administration and has slowed since Trump took office. The Latino unemployment rate declined more than 7% under the previous administration. The Latino unemployment rate has only declined by 1.6% under President Trump.
Immigration
Trump’s anti-immigrant proposals and rhetoric have led to an increase in hate crimes which have culminated in the single most horrific attack on the Latino community in modern history in El Paso, TX.
Despite the promotion of hate and violence coming from the White House, the data shows that immigrants have lower incarceration rates and are more likely to create businesses then non-immigrant populations. In the history of our country, we have never spent more money on a wall that no one wants. Out of the 1,954-mile-long border wall with Mexico, Trump has replaced only 96 miles of existing barriers with sturdier ones. President Trump is preparing to divert $7.2 billion in Pentagon funding for border wall construction this year.
Health Care
The President has backed a lawsuit which would completely overturn the ACA without having a plan to back it up. If he wins his lawsuit, millions of Americans and those with pre-existing conditions would lose their health coverage. If he wanted to protect people with pre-existing conditions, he would drop his lawsuit immediately.
