A comprehensive national online survey of Hispanics ages 18+ by DeepRootAnaytics and DeweySquare Group found that the top four issues for Hispanic Democrats were 1) immigration – pathway to citizenship, 2) Medicare-for-all, 3) gun control and 4) canceling student debt; while Republican Hispanics ranked 1) cutting taxes, 2) energy policy that rolls back excessive regulations, 3) school choice and 4) student debt. On student debt, 60% of Hispanic voters believed it should be canceled for all college students, but 40% believed it should NOT be canceled because that would be unfair to millions who paid.

Immigration was identified by more than 50% of Republicans, Independents and Hispanic voters to be a top election issue according to Brookings and PPRI’s 2019 American Values Survey, but Democrats did not. Has the topic become toxic for Democrats? Immigration was all but ignored in the September, October and November presidential candidate debates. In the July debate, almost all candidates supported Julián Castro’s plan to decriminalize illegal entry and to give free medical benefits to all illegal immigrants. Beto O’Rourke interspersed his presentations in Spanish. But by October, the two Texas candidates had all but disappeared. In the Nov. 20 debate, only one question centered on border issues: Elizabeth Warren confirmed that as president she would authorize taxpayer money to tear down unnecessary border walls.

The bottom line: 60% of Hispanic respondents agreed with the DeepRoots statement: “While I typically vote for candidates of one political party, if the other party’s candidates made an effort to reach out to me, I would consider voting differently.”

DACA At SCOTUS: Likely Will End Up In Congress

For a rare 90 minutes, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on November 12, 2019, about whether or not DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the program that gives temporary waivers from deportation and work permits to some 700,000 unauthorized immigrants known as DREAMers, could be ended by President Donald Trump. DACA had been created in June 2012 through an executive memo (not an order or law). At the time, President Barack Obama had made it clear that the DACA program was temporary and did not give legal status to undocumented immigrants, who had to apply individually and prove they met the minimum requirement: came into the United States before the age of 16 before 2007. They also had to have been in the U.S. consecutively for at least five years, graduated from high school or its equivalent, have no felony convictions and be in the country illegally when applying before the age of 30. President Trump rescinded the program in 2017, but two federal judges put his order on hold until SCOTUS could decide its constitutionality.

No one before the Supreme Court on Nov. 12 disputed that an executive memo by one president could be rescinded by the next. It absolutely can be. The pros and cons of DACA also were not debated. The two main arguments for retaining DACA was that ending it would greatly disrupt beneficiaries’ lives, and that Trump’s action was unconstitutionally “capricious” – even though he had made ending DACA a major campaign promise in 2016.  Key players at SCOTUS told The Hispanic Outlook that DACA was a worthy program. Ultimately however, it was Congress that should legislate it.

That is the likely fate of DACA. But it’s complicated. DREAMers have been used as a bait and switch wedge by Congress since 2007 to push controversial issues like comprehensive immigration reform and The Wall. The SCOTUS decision on DACA will be announced by June.

Foreign Students Numbers Up? Down? Temporary?

“The U.S. economy is losing billions of dollars because foreign students aren’t enrolling,” screamed CNN in November 2019. “Growth in international student enrollment stalls under Trump administration,” Politico trumpeted. “It’s Fallen 10% Since 2015.” But IIE’s officials painted a different picture Nov. 18 at their annual roll-out of their Open Doors report. For the fifth year in a row, the number of foreign students in the United States totaled over one million; but it increased by only 507 students in 2018-19 from 1,094,792 in 2017/18 to 1,095,299. The falling rate of growth of NEW students decreased from a peak of 10% in 2015 to 0.9%. Out of a dozen reasons identified by IIE for slowing growth, the top was cost and (cheaper) opportunities in other countries. The bottom reason: more stringent foreign student visa vetting. “The main cause of rejection is the intent to immigrate,” State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Edward Ramotowski told The Hispanic Outlook. Foreign students have become the fastest growing source of illegal immigration according to the Center for Immigration Studies.  Mexico was again the only Latin America country in the top 10 of foreign student origin countries. •