US-vaccine: Hispanics in the last waiting list

When the priorities on the use and distribution of the vaccines intensify worldwide, capitalism —and its effects— prove to what extent they can get.

Debbie Lesko, Republican congresswoman in Arizona, said that “Latins are good workers, but as they are not American citizens, they belong to the last waiting list to receive the Covid-19 vaccines.”

She represents a district in West Valley and Sun City, California.

She said she felt compassionate about them, and matched them with illegal immigrants and stated: "I worked with people that are Hispanic. I mean they're very good workers. You know, we're compassionate people, but for goodness sakes, we have to take care of American citizens, or people that are here legally, first.”

"I'm just not going to be able to explain to my senior citizens that we're giving away the vaccines to people that (are) here illegally. I just think that's totally wrong."

The Republican lawmaker made such comments in a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, US House of Representatives.

The amendment to a bill, which would give priority to the vaccine distribution plan, was being discussed there.

She made this statement, indeed, few days before the US reached the 500,000 death due to Covid-19.

Thomas A. Sáenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDELF), called Lesko to resign her seat in the House of Representatives.

And added that “her recent remarks reflect an astounding, acquired ignorance of the people in her district; they also demonstrate a willingness to engage in false bias and stereotype in order to demonize people who have been on the frontlines nationally in confronting the devastating impacts of COVID-19.”

He also pointed out: “it has been an appalling display of the worst impulses of reductionist racial stereotyping.”

In this regard, the also Congressman, Martin Quezada said that “This type of ignorance and racism is rampant throughout political thought of the Republican Party.”

And affirmed that Lesko’s opinion to deny the vaccine to the “good workers” is a veiled acceptance of the exploitation of Latins and migrants, which underlies in most of the legal and illegal economy in the US.

According to the most recent Census Bureau estimates, over 20 percent of Rep. Lesko’s constituents are Latino; moreover, over 90 percent of those Latino constituents are United States citizens.

Is this an exception, or a common practice?

It is part of the daily life of American society, indivisible from its traditions.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff