FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2020
Contact: Tenoch Flores, tenoch.flores@outlook.com
LOS ANGELES — As the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump came to a close, Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the NILC Immigrant Justice Fund, issued the following statement:
“Tonight’s debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump once more showcased the stakes for all of us in this election: the opportunity to elect a leader who unites, instead of divides; the need to rebuild our economy with jobs that give everyone, including immigrants, a fair shot; and just as importantly, the opportunity to elect a leader who recognizes that immigrants make this country stronger.
More than 200,000 of our family members, friends, and fellow neighbors, have died as a result of the Trump administration’s callousness and incompetence in the face of the worst pandemic in over 100 years. Tens of millions are out of work, and calls for healing, racial equity and justice continue to grow louder. In the midst of this, Donald Trump chooses to exploit our divisions in order to distract from his failures on the pandemic, the economy and with his personal finances.
As The New York Times recently reported, President Trump paid $750 in federal income tax in 2017. Millions of immigrants who pay and file their taxes using an ITIN paid $23.6 billion in total taxes in 2015 alone. That’s far more than the $750 that Donald Trump paid in federal income taxes in 2016 and again in 2017. In spite of their contributions, these tax-paying immigrants and in many instances their U.S. citizen spouses and children were excluded from federal COVID-19 relief by Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress.
In 35 days, and with early voting already under way in some states, each and every one of us who is eligible to vote must do so without hesitation and vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. This election is not only a referendum on Donald Trump’s record, it is also a referendum on our values as a nation, and an opportunity to resoundingly reject Trump’s politics of hate and division, including his anti-immigrant and xenophobic agenda.
We need leaders that value all of us -- regardless of race, where we were born, or how much money we have -- and are committed to uniting our country. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the right team to begin the process of healing and rebuilding that our nation so desperately needs.”
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