Americans are heading to the polls today to decide on their elected officials in the midterm elections, and one of the big issues of the campaign has been that of immigration reform. Many in the Latino community in particular are convinced that the immigration laws in the United States are badly in need of an overhaul and much political blood has been spilled on both sides of the agenda.
“I think that Latinos see immigration as something that is very specific to their communities and that they take personally, and when people are insulting about immigrants or immigration like the way politicians often have in this country, they take it personally,” says Brent Wilkes of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “And I think it’s a very important part of what’s on their minds as Latinos go to the polls this November.”
It is not just the sizable Latino demographic in the United States that would be affected by immigration reform. India and Asia in general are also concerned about the issue, particularly when it comes to tech workers. Tech workers require a special US visa known as the H-1B visa; however, just 65,000 of these visas are available per annum, which many in the industry say is nowhere near enough to meet their needs.
The immigration process for H-1B visas is also spectacularly complex, making many employers who would like to do everything by the book give up in despair, while sometimes foreign workers arrive in the US with visas only to be mistreated. Immigration reform is vital to many voting in the midterm elections.