Joe Biden, Donald Trump and CNN missed an opportunity during the first presidential debate Thursday night to address some big news from the morning that will make an impact on the 2024 presidential election.
The U.S. Census reported that Latinos drove nearly 71% − yes, more than two-thirds − of the United States’ population growth from 2022 to 2023.
Yet Latinos were absent from the exchange of insults, falsehoods and ramblings that characterized the debate between the U.S. president and his predecessor.
There were discussions of issues that rank at the top of Latinos’ priorities, including pocketbook issues and immigration, but the candidates failed to go beneath the surface.
More important, while Latinos are not a monolith, they are an important voting bloc united by cultural and linguistic ties, and their votes are up for grabs in 2024.
A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released in May shows Americans are split 37%-37% over Biden and Trump. That same poll showed that Hispanic voters prefer Biden, but only by 34% to 28%. In 2020, the president’s share of Latino votes was 2-to-1 over Trump. In short, Biden is in trouble.
Stop the fearmongering rhetoric and act on important issues
Consider the Census data from Thursday:
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Latinos now make up 65 million residents, or 19.5% of the nation — growing by 4.8% since 2020. The growth has been primary due to natural births.
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That’s compared to a 1% increase since then for the overall U.S. population, which now totals 334.9 million..
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Meanwhile, in Tennessee the Latino population grew by 7.7% over those three years to 535,000 of 7.1 million residents.
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In 2010, the Latino population made up 4.6% of the state’s population; in 2020, it was 7%; and now, it’s 7.5% and growing.
The growth is especially noticeable with workers on constructions sites, agricultural fields and the increase in Latino-owned small businesses across Middle Tennessee.
That growth means that no politician should take Latino voters for granted, and the Census numbers show that it’s time for politicians to stop divisive rhetoric that makes even one part of the population feel unwelcome in the country.
Stop the fearmongering rhetoric on mass deportations. Start doing something for the Dreamers − who were children when their parents brought them into U.S. unlawfully − and are in a limbo immigration status thanks to actions and inaction from both presidents.
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Do not just talk about macroeconomic gains, such as the record-high stock market, but also about the every-day person’s anxiety over the costs of goods, living wages, and rising housing prices.
Broken promises and failed policies have eroded trust
Immigration is consistently the No. 1 or No. 2 most important issue Americans say concern them in poll after poll be it through Gallup or the GOP Nashville Summer Picnic straw poll on June 22.
Both political parties have failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform and border security laws as recently as this year because of political pettiness.
Politicians including Republican Tennessee U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty have visited the U.S.-Mexico border and have warned that every city is a border city even though Tennessee is 1,000 miles away from the Rio Grande.
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Rhetoric from former President Donald Trump on mass deportations, building a wall and asylees stoke fear among residents who are either directly affected or may know someone in their family or circle of friends who are.
On the other hand, Biden has been inconsistent on border policy and while he promised to undo Trump era policies, he has effectively reversed course.
The current influx of migrants from the U.S-Mexico line both in border states, but also in big northern cities such as Chicago and New York, have created animus and tension across different demographics.
While not all Latinos are immigrants, their cultural and familial ties link them to communities south of the border, and while politicians may be intending their rhetoric for just undocumented immigrants, there’s a reason even U.S.-born Latinos take it personally.
We must remember U.S. history is full of examples of broken promises and exclusion of Black and brown residents.
Here are just a few:
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The broken promises of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo stemming from the U.S.-Mexican War − under U.S. President James K. Polk of Tennessee’s administration − led to seized property and deportations of former Mexican subjects who were considered inferior to white, or Anglo, citizens.
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In the 1930s, the United States unjustly deported up to 1.8 million U.S. citizens of Mexican descent mainly from California and Texas, but also in other states, to Mexico just because government officials did not care to distinguish between citizens and non-citizens.
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Immigration law in the 1960s undid exclusionary policies of the 1920s that kept many people of Latin American descent from coming to the U.S.
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Even those whose families have lived in the country for hundreds of years have been treated like second-class citizens because of Jim Crow segregation laws and cultural norms disfavoring people of color. Laws such as Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 were meant to target illegal immigration but led to racial profiling of American cities who happened to be Latino.
Neither presidential candidate is doing a particularly good job of inspiring voters, but deep, sincere and effective investment in Latino voters − both in English and Spanish − will be the key to victory for either Trump or Biden.
David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee. He is an editorial board member of The Tennessean. He hosts the Tennessee Voices videocast and curates the Tennessee Voices and Latino Tennessee Voices newsletters. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @davidplazas.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee, US grow thanks to Latinos, but Trump, Biden ignored them
