The battle in Washington over reforming health care has been in the headlines for months, and Latino voters, like the rest of America, expect to see results. But as a poll released yesterday by Impremedia, Latino Decisions and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows, even success in passing health-care reform won’t let President Obama and the Democrats off the hook with Latinos for their promise to fix the immigration system.
Of the 1000 registered Latino voters surveyed, 84% consider it “important, very important or extremely important” that immigration reform is passed before the 2010 midterm elections. That’s almost equal to the amount, 86%, of Latino voters who consider health-care reform important.
In an article about the poll, La Opinión noted that 34% of respondents considered health-care reform “the most important issue” facing Latinos at the moment, while “only 14%” named immigration. But after months of debate over health care, this isn’t surprising. Ultimately, Latinos need to see action on both.
