Former Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis Talks about the 2024 Election: Latino Skin in the Game
Left to Right: Eduardo Castro, Gloria Reyes, Areli Estrada, Hilda Solis, Oscar Mireles, Erin Arango-Escalante, Dan Guerra
by Jonathan Gramling
On April 30, Hilda Solis, who served as secretary of Labor in the first Obama administration and is currently a Los Angeles County supervisor, came to Madison to drum up support for the Biden-Harris ticket in November. She is spreading the word around the nation that there are clear differences between Biden and Trump.
Solis warned that the Trump campaign is trying to divide the Latino community on the issue of immigration.
“Lord knows, Trump will twist the law,” Solis said. “And he will divide us. We’re hearing instances of that where he is trying to divide some of the people who have been here for many years and have become part of the system and they are trying to pit us against some of the newer migrant arrivals saying, ‘Why are you giving them a free pass? Why are you allowing them to not follow the system?’ It’s not about that. It’s about immigration reform. It’s all the things that we know that need to happen.”
Trump has stated that he will round up and deport around 25 million people whom he says are in the U.S. illegally. Past sweeps resulted in the deportation of undocumented and U.S. citizens. Solis warned the group what would really happen.
“They want to deputize police so that they all become immigration officers,” Solis said. “And you know what they are going to do. They are going to profile people, Latinos and people of color. And they are going to say, ‘Show me your ID.’ And if you have a ticket or you don’t have an ID and you happen to be there, chances are they are going to incarcerate you. And who knows? We saw this pattern before in Arizona with Sheriff Arpaio,
sending people back. What happened there was pretty bad. Our community has to be vigilant and we have to say, ‘No, we’re not going to take it and we’re not going to allow that to happen.’ And I know the Biden Administration would be opposed to that because it constitutionally violates protections for people.”
Some people say that Biden hasn’t done anything about immigration reform. Solis said it was a divided Congress that has prevented any reform from moving forward.
“In 2020, Biden met personally with Dreamers in Nevada when I was with him traveling,” Solis said. “And he told them, ‘What is your biggest fear?’ ‘Somehow, I am not going to be able to stabilize my status here.’ He said, ‘I’m going to make sure that you get what you need, that we help you in any way that we can.’ Many of the things that he has tried to do have been left on the shelf because he can’t get things passed in the Senate or the House. That’s difficult. He’s making changes, chipping away, doing what he can.”
Solis also emphasized that the Affordable Care Act has greatly benefited the Latino community.
“The Affordable Care Act, which many of us asked for, if Trump gets in, that’s the first thing that he is going to go after,” Solis warned. “He’s going to chip that away. He’s going to take away the $35 cost for insulin. And if you know anything about our community — which I am pretty sure that you do — we have some of the highest cost illnesses, one of which is diabetes that leads to other things. I think $35 is incredible that even happened, but he was able to get it done.”
Solis emphasized the impact that ARPA, pandemic-era funding, funding had on the everyday citizens where she lives.
“A majority of our funding comes from our own taxes,” Solis said. “But a lot of it comes from the state and the federal government. And we rely very heavily on those funds, especially during the pandemic. We used that money to lift up some of our mom and pop stores. They could keep their doors open and pay their electricity bill and keep some of their employees on even though they had to close. But they kept going. And we knew it was going to be a sacrifice. We got them PPP so that they could have the sufficient resources to be able to protect themselves.”
There are things happening within the Latino community — and the nation as a whole — that are impacting people’s lives for the better. Few people realize that it is due to legislation passed by the Biden Administration.
“He approved $6.6 billion for infrastructure for your state,” Solis said. “As a result, you have a lot of people who are working on repairing our bridges and our infrastructure and in our day cares and our health care clinics. It’s all of those things that people perhaps can’t visualize, but we have to frame it for them.”
Solis talked about the impact of student debt and efforts that Biden has made to reduce it.
“Biden has tried to reduce student debt, but hasn’t been that successful,” Solis said. “But nonetheless, there are millions of dollars that have come here to this state to help provide relief to those young people. I was on financial aide when I was in college. And if you didn’t make a payment, your credit was ruined and you couldn’t get credit. Just think of all of the folks out there who are thinking about what is going to happen to them. We know that we have to work very quickly on this.”
It is the people interpreting the law — judges — who impact how justice is served in the nation’s courts. Solis feels that Biden has made strides in this area as well.
“Biden has appointed more Latino judges than anyone,” Solis said. “I know personally from LA, the people who have been appointed as well as people who represent outside of this realm, even abroad in ambassadorships. I have a couple of friends who started out like me and he appointed them, women and men. I feel that story hasn’t even been told.”
Solis outlined other areas of stark contrast between Biden and Trump including reproductive health care rights. In closing, Solis noted that many Latinos are doing okay. And so it is important that they give back so that others can follow in their footsteps. It’s all about community.