AU freshman calls on for immigration policies: view them as humans first!
By Shengya Li
Washington – Natali Palacios, a freshman international-relations major student, actively participates in voting for the midterm election. The young Democrat criticized the immigration policies that the Trump administration had now and urged to make some changes. “A lot of time, people just view immigrants as statistics, ” said Palacios, “like how they would help the economy or something like that, instead of seeing them as humans first.”
Palacios has just turned 18. With the right to vote, she registered to vote in Maryland. She was born in Maryland and grew up in a Democratic family, and her parents were immigrants from El Salvador and Nicaragua. This linked her tightly to how she views these immigration policies. “Without them, I won’t be able to get the opportunities that I have now.”
She was influenced by her family and became a Democrat as well. “One of the reasons that I have to vote is because of my parents,” said Palacios. She says she believed that Democrats give more quality to people. Even though Palacios hasn’t decided who she would like to vote for yet, she says that she will lean more towards the Democrat parties.
“I think the most important issue that the country has now is the immigration issue since that’s becoming the big trouble with Trump,” said Palacios. “Because that’s what Trump built his campaign on, about keeping immigrants out,” Palacios says that she thinks the government should try to help those who they can help, rather than kicking them all out from the country.
She mentioned that the portrayal that the government has on many immigrants is wrong. “Specifically what they said about the Mexicans, about how they are drug dealers, and they are raping people, that’s just not true,” said Palacios, “ the thing is that a lot of immigrants are refugees from the wars.”
“I would like to have a voice in the country as well,” Palacios said, as the biggest reason that she votes in the Midterm Election.
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