GOP Debate #3: Here’s what we hope to hear tonight

Asian Americans, immigrants should be recognized for their contributions to the U.S.

Round three of the Republican Presidential Debate is airing tonight with a focus on jobs and the economy.

It may be wishful thinking, but we’d love to see the candidates show some appreciation for the economic contributions of immigrants to our nation. We know America was built on the hard work of immigrants and that Asian Americans — 90 percent of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants — are part of making America stronger.

Asian Americans have a buying power topping $770 billion nationally (exceeding the economies of all but 18 countries worldwide), and that number is expected to rise to $1 trillion by 2018. In addition, Asian American-owned businesses are valuable to our nation’s economy. For example, there are more than 70,000 Asian American-owned businesses in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that employ more than 130,000 people, and the 38,000 Asian American-owned businesses in Dallas issue more than $11 billion in annual payroll.

Asian Americans have also made valuable contributions to America in science, technology, sports and entertainment.

But so far, instead of recognizing these contributions, some of the candidates who will be on stage tonight have painted immigrants as a burden and used rhetoric targeting Latino and Asian American communities.

Candidate Ben Carson has said that he doesn’t believe a Muslim American should be able to become a U.S. president.

Candidate Donald Trump has mentioned that he would be willing to close our nation’s mosques, and that he’d abolish birthright citizenship.

Candidate Jeb Bush joined in this line of thought on birthright citizenship, specifically targeting Asian Americans as “anchor babies.”

Tonight is a great opportunity for the candidates to wipe the slate clean and show they value and care about immigrants and the Asian American community. So far, other than making Asian Americans targets of an anti-immigrant comments, no candidate has really even discussed Asian Americans on the campaign trail, despite the fact that Asian Americans are the fastest growing political force in the country.

There are nearly three times as many Asian Americans living in the United States than 25 years ago. By 2044, Asian Americans are projected to be 10 percent of the American electorate. In the 2014 Midterm elections, it was clear the Asian American vote was up for grabs — aligning with neither party but rather voting on the issues.

According to our polling of Asian American voter attitudes prior to the 2014 Midterms:

• 69 percent of Asian Americans want bit money out, and support limits on the amount of money corporations and organizations can contribute to political campaigns.
• 69 percent of Asian Americans favor affirmative action programs in higher education.
• 80 percent of Asian Americans want stricter gun control laws

In addition to recognizing immigrant contributions, we’d love to see some of these issues addressed tonight.

Advancing Justice | AAJC also signed on to a letter calling on the moderator of tonight’s debate to ask the candidates where they stand on voting rights. The U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, and since then, we have been working with larger civil rights coalition to restore voting protections, which are necessary to protect Asian Americans and all voters from discrimination at the polls.

The moderators and broadcasters of these debates have the opportunity and obligation to get all the presidential candidates on the record regarding their stands on voting rights, and so much more that Asian Americans care about.

We’ll be watching.