Latino members of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet defended his policies to control the pandemic, saying he’s improved vaccination rates and restricted immigration at the southern border to protect public health in the United States.
The coronavirus has disproportionately impacted Latino families, decimated many jobs and small businesses, and threatened recent gains in Latino educational attainment — in particular, college completion rates.
The administration has been under fire for denying entry to the U.S. to thousands of Haitians and other mostly Central Americans, continuing a Trump-era public health order to expel migrants and their families.
While defending those policies, the Cabinet members touted administration initiatives on healthcare and education access, and progress on infrastructure and aid to working families.
MSNBC “American Voices” host Alicia Menendez interviewed Alejandro Mayorkas, Xavier Becerra, Miguel Cardona, Isabella Casillas Guzman, and White House directors and key staffers Emmy Ruiz, Julie Chávez Rodríguez and Carlos Elizondo about the issues they’re tackling, as well as their Latino roots, for a Hispanic Heritage Month special, “American Voices: Latinos Inside the White House” airing Sunday at 7 p.m. on MSNBC.
The four Latino Cabinet members and key White House staffers each have origin stories that are part of what they are drawing on, along with years of government and executive experience.
Below are excerpts from their interviews.
Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Department of Homeland Security:
On returning to Haiti some of the thousands of Haitians who gathered under a bridge in Texas last month: “A new government took power and the situation is more stable. We’re very mindful, of course, of the tragedy of the earthquake that occurred. That earthquake occurred in a particular area of the country. It was distinct from the tragic Jan. 10, 2010, earthquake.”
On the rule of law and immigration: “We are a nation of laws, our laws provide for humanitarian relief, and we will see those laws come to life, to their fullest, in the ensuing days and weeks of this administration.”
On whether he is denying immigrants at the southern border the welcome his immigrant parents got: “We accept so many individuals here in the United States. We do address asylum claims. We’re in a very unique position right now, addressing a global pandemic, and the public health imperatives … It is not necessarily a differential of our humanitarian embrace, but rather a differential born of the circumstances that our country and the world is confronting now.”
On his Cuban heritage and being part of a larger American Latino community: “When my father spoke in English, he tended to be a rather serious person. When my father spoke in Spanish, there was a of joy of life in his voice and in his mannerisms. through that contrast, I…
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