FACT SHEET: President Biden and Vice President Harris Are Delivering for Latino Communities

Since Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked to ensure every community—including Latino communities—can access a quality education, obtain a good-paying job, own a home, start a business, and afford high-quality health care. This National Hispanic Heritage Month, President Biden and Vice President Harris celebrate and honor the rich contributions of Latinos and remain committed to ensuring every family has a shot at the American Dream.

Growing Economic Prosperity for Latino Communities

The Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda has created five million jobs for Latino workers—achieving a historically low Latino unemployment rate, reported at 5.5% through August 2024, down from 8.6% when the President and Vice President took office. The Biden-Harris Administration has delivered record economic results for Latinos, including:

• Hispanic business ownership is up 40%–growing at the fastest rate in 30 years.
• Doubled the number of Small Business Administration-backed loans to Latino-owned businesses in FY 2023 compared to FY 2020.
• Cut mortgage interest premiums for Federal Housing Administration loans, saving over 185,000 Latino homeowners more than $1,000 per year.
• Achieved the largest increase in homeownership rates for Hispanic homeowners versus the previous year and took historic action to root out home appraisal bias, which contributes to the wealth gap by unfairly undervaluing homes owned by Latinos and in majority-Latino neighborhoods
• Awarded nearly $11 billion in Federal contracts to Latino-owned small businesses in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, an increase of nearly $1 billion since FY 2020.
• Increased funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant program—the major Federal child care grant program—by almost 50% to serve half a million more children, and issued a rule to cap out-of-pocket child care costs in that program at 7% of income, saving about 100,000 low-income families over $200 a month on average.
• Expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC) under the American Rescue Plan, which helped cut Latino child poverty nearly in half to a record low of 8.4% in 2021—lifting 1.2 million Latino children out of poverty that year and bringing the gap between Latino and white child poverty rates to a historic low.  President Biden and Vice President Harris continue to call on Congress to restore the full expanded CTC expanded benefit so that millions of children can be lifted out of poverty. The Biden-Harris Administration also modernized SNAP benefits for the first time since 1975, lifting about 700,000 Latino families, including 360,000 Latino children, out of poverty each month.
• Took action to establish the first-ever Federal heat safety standard in workplaces combatting extreme weather to protect 36 million farmworkers, construction workers, manufacturing workers, and others.
• Invested more than $140 billion to drive an economic turnaround in Puerto Rico—creating more than 100,000 jobs and lowering the unemployment rate to 5.8%, near its lowest level ever. The American Rescue Plan also permanently made Puerto Rican families eligible for the same Child Tax Credit as other Americans, making nearly 90% of Puerto Rican families newly eligible for the credit.

Ensuring Equitable Educational Opportunity for Latino Students

President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that every student in this country deserves access to a high-quality education and a fair shot at the American Dream. This Administration has taken action to expand educational opportunities and improve college affordability for all students, including:

• Invested a record over $15 billion in Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs)— the largest investment in U.S. history.
• Signed an Executive Order establishing a President’s Advisory Board and White House Initiative on HSIs to coordinate Federal resources and bolster collaboration between institutions.
• Secured a $900 increase to the maximum Pell Grant award—the largest increase in the past decade, helping the over 50% of Latino college students who rely on Pell Grants.
• Approved the cancellation of almost $170 billion in student loan debt for nearly 5 million borrowers—including for Latino borrowers, who are disproportionately burdened by student debt.
• Proposed a rule to expand TRIO college access programs to Dreamers and others, which would allow an estimated 50,000 more students each year to access Federal college preparation services and programs, such as counseling and tutoring, and thousands more to attend college.
• Announced nearly $15 million in new grants under the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program (Hawkins) to advance teacher diversity and prepare the next generation of educators at Minority Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Tribal Colleges Universities—who can provide culturally and linguistically responsive teaching in our country’s underserved schools. This new round of grants—which includes awards to 15 HSIs—brings the total investment in Hawkins to $38 million under the Biden-Harris Administration, which is the first Administration to secure funding for the program.

Improving Health Outcomes for Latino Communities

From beating Big Pharma and lowering prescription drug costs to expanding health care coverage, President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken action to make high-quality health care more affordable.

• Starting in 2025, all out-of-pocket drug costs will be capped at $2,000 per year and the cost of insulin is now capped at $35 for Medicare Part D enrollees, which includes five million Latinos.
• In August 2024, the President and Vice President announced new, negotiated prices for the first ten prescription drugs selected for Medicare price negotiation—expected to save Medicare enrollees $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs in the first year of the program alone.
• Latino enrollment in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace coverage has doubled under the Biden-Harris Administration, which also extended ACA healthcare benefits to Dreamers starting on November 1, 2024.
• Launched a new grant program to train doctors and physician assistants on providing culturally and linguistically appropriate care for individuals with limited English proficiency, including those who speak Spanish, to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities.
• Added Spanish text and chat services to the National 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline so that individuals can now connect directly to Spanish-speaking crisis counselors.

Reducing Gun Violence and Saving Lives

President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken historic action to reduce gun violence and keep our communities safe:

• After the heroic advocacy of families from Buffalo and Uvalde and so many other communities across the country, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law—the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years.
• Established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, overseen by Vice President Harris, which has accelerated work to reduce gun violence and engaged with Latino communities—including survivors of mass shootings in Uvalde and El Paso and survivors of community violence disproportionately affecting Black and Latino communities.
• Secured $400 million for the first-ever federal grant program solely dedicated to community violence interventions.

Addressing America’s Broken Immigration System

On Day One, President Biden introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill and has repeatedly called on Congressional Republicans to pass the SENATE bipartisan border security bill – the toughest and fairest set of border reforms in decades. Throughout this Administration, the President and Vice President have taken action to improve our country’s immigration system.

• Took action to speed up work visas, to help people who graduated from U.S. colleges and universities—including Dreamers—land jobs in high-demand high-skilled professions.
• Took action that would allow 500,000 spouses of American citizens who have been in the country for 10 years or more to apply for lawful permanent residence while staying in the United States. The Biden-Harris Administration is fighting efforts by Republican officials to block this work in court, so that families—including Latino families—can stay together.
• Directed the Department of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to “preserve and fortify” Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and continue to defend the DACA rule in court.
• Streamlined, expanded, and instituted new reunification programs so that families can stay together while they complete the immigration process.
• Took executive action to secure the border when Congressional Republicans twice blocked the Senate bipartisan border security deal.

Advancing an Unprecedented Whole-of-Government Equity Agenda to Expand Opportunity

President Biden and Vice President Harris promised to leverage the power of the Federal Government to deliver for all communities and build an Administration that looks like America.

• Assembled the most diverse administration in U.S. history, including four Latino Cabinet members—Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Becerra, Department of Education Secretary Cardona, and U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Guzman.
• Signed two Executive Orders directing the Federal Government to address system inequality and barriers to equal opportunity faced by underserved communities.
• Updated Federal race and ethnicity data collection standards for the first time in almost 30 years, which is expected to improve Latino community data representation in the U.S. Census and Federal programs.

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