Tim Kaine Joins Hillary Clinton in Vowing Comprehensive Immigration Reform Push in First 100 Days
Hillary Clinton's running-mate Tim Kaine has joined her in pledging if the duo is elected to the White House this fall they will commence building comprehensive immigration reform within "the first 100 days" of their administration.
During a recent Telemundo interview, the Spanish speaking Kaine assured viewers the former first lady's commitment to immigration reform knows no boundaries.
"Hillary is going to do that in the first 100 days of her administration," he said. "She is going to make a big effort in Congress to get reform passed, and with my experience in the Senate, with bipartisan colleagues, I am going to work hard - especially in Congress - to help this effort, and other issues, too."
Spanish Speaking Kaine
Kaine came to master the Spanish language more than three decades ago while serving as a missionary in Honduras, an experience that still leaves him particularly sensitive to all the violence yet plaguing that region of the globe.
"I hope I could help work with the governments there to support their efforts at economic development, to combat the violence," he added. "Our nations should work together to end this situation," he added.
Clinton has long been on-the-record with her views and plans for immigration reform. And Kaine sought to assure the audience she can be taken at her word, insisting she has long ago reversed the way of thinking that had her advocating for children who illegally cross the border to be deported.
"It's important to have a system to control the border, and so when we first started getting flooded with people it was difficult to decide what to do," he said. "But now we understand the reasons why those children are coming here. Americans buy illegal drugs from south of the border, and the money from those drug deals goes back south. In societies like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, that money becomes a source of corruption and violence."
Kaine furthered reasoned such a cycle of corruption ultimately leaves those most in need in the most danger, not to mention desperate to find a new way of life.
Thus far, the GOP led ticket of Donald Trump and Mike Pence have refrained from granting any interviews to Spanish-language media outlets like Telemundo, leaving many media types frustrated and left with questions.
"We don't get the access to the top players and that's frustrating," said Luis Megid, national correspondent with Univision. "Their strategy doesn't seem to include the Hispanic voters."
Trump Lagging With Hispanic Voters
A recent Univision survey reveals that way of thinking comes with a price. Pollsters found Clinton bagging 67 percent of the Hispanic vote, compared to just 19 percent for Trump.
Collectively, 69 percent of Hispanic voters responded they have a favorable opinion of Clinton, compared to 77 percent who insisted they see Trump in a negative light, including 73 percent of Latino voters who openly admit they believe the New York City real estate mogul to be a racist.
On the question of who would do the most to improve the lives of Hispanics, Clinton topped Trump 67 percent to 12 percent.
The news is even dimmer for Trump when viewed through the lens of a recent Latino Decisions poll that found him trailing Clinton by an even larger 74 percent to 16 percent margin among Hispanics.
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