Las Vegas — Vice President Kamala Harris fielded questions about immigration, the economy and healthcare at a town hall with Univision on Thursday. Polls suggest these issues are critical to the Latino voting bloc, and many of these questions were posed by people who had very personal, emotional stories to tell.
Supports “Dreamers,” pins blame on Trump for bipartisan border bill
Jesus Aispuro, a first-time voter from California, told Harris he has friends who are “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children. Pressing her on what she’d do to protect Dreamers under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Harris said she’d prioritize an immigration plan that establishes a pathway to citizenship.
In response to a case in front of a federal appeals court over the fate of DACA, Harris’ 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.”
Yvette Castillo began her question by noting she and Harris have something in common: both of their mothers are dead. Castillo noted her mother died six weeks ago, and while she was alive, she did not succeed in acquiring U.S. citizenship. Harris’ mother died in 2009.
“What are your plans to support that subgroup of immigrants who have been here their whole lives and have to live and die in the shadows?” Castillo asked.
Harris repeatedly said she was sorry for Castillo’s loss, and then she said the bipartisan border bill that former President Donald Trump lobbied Republican lawmakers to vote against could have created “a comprehensive earned pathway to citizenship for hard working people.”
She went on to argue that this failure to enact legislation bore responsibility for the outcome Castillo’s mother had.
“Had your mother been able to gain citizenship, she would have been entitled to health care that may have alleviated her suffering and yours. And this is one example of the fact that there are real people who are suffering because of an inability to put solutions in front of politics,” Harris added.
The Latino vote is crucial for Harris’ path to the White House, and polling shows it’s a more competitive fight than in 2020. Harris holds an 18-point advantage over former president Donald Trump, according to a September CBS News poll. It’s a smaller gap compared to President Joe Biden’s 33-point advantage with Latino voters in a 2020 CBS News exit poll.
“The largest segment of undecided voters right now are still within the Latino community. So doing town halls like this, it’s going to places like Arizona… having folks like the rest of us all across those states, are going to be very important,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California said after the debate.
“Latinos are going to have an outsized influence in this election because the margins are so tight,” he added.
Criticizes Trump over reports he sent COVID tests to Putin, can’t list three virtues about him
Mario Sigbaum, a 70-year-old independent and undecided voter, questioned how Harris was able to become the Democratic nominee and said the late switch resulting from President Biden’s late exit from the race “inclined me to vote for Trump.”
After Harris praised Mr. Biden for supporting her run, she highlighted her own support from Republicans and argued Trump admires “dictators and autocracy.” She criticized Trump over reports he sent Russian President Vladimir Putin a COVID test machine during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m sure people here have family members or friends who died [from COVID], and he secretly shipped off COVID tests to Vladimir Putin of Russia. When people died — hundreds were dying every day,” Harris said, adding that she and Mr. Biden tried to address the disproportionate rate of Latino and Black Americans dying from COVID infections.
“So, I present that to you, sir, to say, this is an extraordinary time,” she said.
Asked by a voter at the end if she could name three virtues of Trump, Harris noted his love for his family, but declined to add more.
“Family is one of the most important things that we can prioritize. But I don’t really know him to be honest with you. I’ve only met him one time on the debate stage. So, I don’t really have much more to offer you,” she said.
Hurricane Milton response
The town hall began with Ramiro Gonzalez, a voter from Tampa, Florida, who noted more than one hurricane had struck his home.
“Rumors are that your administration didn’t do enough to respond to the last hurricane. What would you specifically do, or your administration do, to help us in the Tampa Bay area or the Central Florida area with this hurricane?” he asked Harris.
Harris responded by decrying disinformation spread about the federal response to recent hurricanes. “I have to stress that this is not a time for people to play politics,” she said. She then listed her continual briefings and contact with state and local officials on the ground, and warned against companies that are raising prices in impacted areas.
Economy and health care: “Prices are too high, still… and we have to deal with it.”
Asked by Wendy Solares — a mother who houses her children, as well as her parents — what Harris would do to help the middle class, Harris took a more sympathetic tone to the rise in the cost of living.
“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.
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.
Harris noted 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,” Harris responded.
Aaron Navarro is a CBS News digital reporter covering the 2024 elections. He was previously an associate producer for the CBS News political unit in the 2021 and 2022 election cycles.
