A number of Hispanics in the Democratic Party have spoken out against pending legislature bills designed to try to curb illegal immigration. The group, which is making a lot of noises about the importance of the Hispanic vote in the upcoming presidential election, spoke at a Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida press conference on Monday.
“In this presidential season, where Hispanics will be the swing vote in the swing areas of the swing state of Florida, our voices will be heard,” State Senator Darren Soto of Orlando claimed. The group has declared its opposition to Republican-filed legislature bills that want to crack down on the so-called ‘sanctuary cities’ that refuse to obey federal deportation orders with regard to undocumented immigrants and prevent immigrants who have already been deported from the United States re-entering the country unless they have federal authorization to do so.
The group is giving its support to a number of Democratic-led bills, however, such as legislation to increase minimum wage in the United States to $15 an hour.
Soto, who is running for the position of congressman in District 9 this year, says that the Cuban Adjustment Act and current Cuba-related immigration laws should stay in place due to the political tyranny that still exists in the country.
Soto added that he wants to see Central American immigrants helped more by the federal government, but not at the expense of Cubans. “Certainly we should be helping out those countries to be able to resolve this and also have an organized way to address those refugees,” he says.