NEW YORK (TIP): Caribbean immigration advocates Tuesday night, Nov. 3, welcomed voters’ overwhelming rejection of President Donald J. Trump’s policies by giving Democrats control of both Houses of Congress.
“Voters today sent a clear message: we need a government that is responsive to the needs of immigrants, working-class families, our trans and gender-expansive loved ones, young people, women, and Black and brown communities,” said Natalia Aristizabal, co-executive director of Make the Road New York (MRNY), an immigrant advocacy group.
“In New York, there is a mandate for progressive policies that make tangible differences in people’s lives,” she added. “We will continue to work with our elected officials in Albany to deliver real solutions for our communities.
“In order to have a state that works for everyone we have to invest in childcare, healthcare, schools, and housing by ensuring that the ultra-wealthy and corporations pay their fair share in taxes,” Aristizabal continued. “We must expand protections for immigrant New Yorkers so that they never have to fear that their loved ones may be abducted on their way to work.”
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She said MRNY members showed up this election season.
“We knocked on nearly 10,000 doors, trained hundreds of people in election protection, and monitored poll sites on Long Island,” Aristizabal said. “Now we are ready to take to the streets on Nov. 7 in Manhattan to ensure that all votes are counted, and the winners are seated.
“As we look at the national results, we must underline how important it is that our democracy functions as it is designed to,” she added. “Every vote must be counted. In this country the voters pick their leaders, yet this federal administration is trying every trick in the book to decide our futures for us. We cannot let them.
“We will continue to monitor the vote-counting process and demand that those in power obey the will of the people,” Aristizabal continued.
Yvonne Armstrong, president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East (1199SEIU), the nation’s largest healthcare union, said Tuesday’s Democratic sweep is “a win for working people.”
She said her members volunteered “countless hours” in key congressional districts in New York, New Jersey, and along the East Coast.
“This is a win for working people, by working people,” Armstrong said. “The stakes of this year’s elections are personal for the frontline healthcare workers of 1199SEIU.”
She said drastic funding cuts and “political stunts” by the Trump administration hurt union members in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, and home care programs, where 1199SEIU provides care to the sick, the elderly, and people living with disabilities — “all to hand tax cuts to billionaires.”
“We saw our patients losing insurance and our facilities threatened with closure,” Armstrong said. “Temporary Protected Status (for Haitians) was cruelly ripped away from our colleagues while ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents stormed into our communities terrorizing our neighbors and our loved ones.
“That’s why we organized and turned out to elect leaders who share our vision of a better future — one where every family can access affordable care, our loved ones can age with dignity, and healthcare workers like us can survive and thrive no matter where we come from,” she added. “Together, we rejected a government driven by greed rather than the needs of working families.”
But Armstrong said this is just the beginning.
“We expect the leaders we elected to be ready to protect Medicaid, expand access to quality care, restore immigrant protections, and defend our right to organize,” she added. “1199SEIU members will keep organizing and will hold every leader accountable to all working people”
In what has been described as a stunning tsunami, Democrats flipped even ruby-red Republican States in victories in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries — whose 8th Congressional District in Brooklyn and Queens comprises a significant number of Caribbean nationals — easily won re-election.
With the Associated Press calling the race, with 88% of the polling precincts reporting, Jeffries secured 128,197 votes, or 78.94%, to Republican Lewis Mizrahi’s 31,969 votes, or 19.68%.
There were 2,238 write-in votes, or 1.38%.
“We’re going to fight to make sure that we make this country affordable for every single American,” Jeffries told jubilant supporters Tuesday night in Washington, D.C.
“This is a change election,” added Jeffries, who is poised to become the first Black Speaker, in American history, of the US House of Representatives. “And we understand as House Democrats we need to deliver dramatic change.
“Things are broken. We need a Congress that puts the American people first,” he continued.
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