Moderation is key — especially for California District 14 candidates Eric Swalwell and Vin Kruttiventi, who will try to seize on the district’s sizable immigrant vote without alienating partisans in their respective parties.
As immigration has become a defining issue of the 2024 election, California’s 14th congressional district stands out as a hub for foreign-born citizens working in the tech industry – nearly 2 in 5 residents are immigrants – while both candidates call for stiffer reforms to quell immigration from across the southern border.
“We can have security and address the workforce crisis in America,” Rep. Swalwell, the Democratic incumbent, said in an email. “Only one party is interested in that. Democrats.”
Swalwell is running for a seventh consecutive term in the House of Representatives, where he’s served on the Homeland Security Committee and the Judiciary Committee, key assignments that give him direct oversight on immigration issues. He embraced the role of heel to the Trump administration’s most restrictive policies, but record levels of illegal migration have forced him to toe the line between hawk and dove.
Kruttiventi, the Republican challenger, is a naturalized citizen born in Hyderabad, India. He moved to the U.S. in 2002 and founded several start-up companies in cloud software. Today, he’s the CEO and president of the global consulting firm A5. Kruttiventi’s idyllic immigrant story is one he believes should be replicated across the nation through immigration reform that secures the southern border and creates a “fair and compassionate” immigration process.
“Many of my friends have had to earn double masters in order to be here. They’ve been paying taxes, they obey the law and are legal citizens,” Kruttiventi said. “For at least people who were born in India and China, the backlog for a green card is over 100 years.”
That backlog is holding back the American economy, Kruttiventi said, which is effectively pushing “unicorn” immigrants to create multi-million dollar businesses in China and India instead of the United States. Attracting them to the United States requires the U.S. to prioritize merit-based immigration which streamlines their citizenship, he said.
A 2024 immigration bill that Swalwell supported would have added dozens of immigration judges to handle backlogs related to green cards, asylum claims and naturalization. He described Republicans who blocked the bill in May as “not serious” on immigration, and lampooned them for promoting a false migrant pet-eating conspiracy while voting against border patrol funding.
“Democrats want order. Republicans want disorder,” Swalwell said. “Democrats have solutions. Republicans only want the politics.”
But Kruttiventi said it’s Democrats who are playing politics. Because the proposed immigration bill contained $60 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine and $20 billion in weapons and defense systems to Israel, Republican opposition was warranted and a more restrictive immigration bill is required, he said.
“Politics were being played,” Krittuventi said, adding that the bill fell short of creating a more strict asylum screening process that would alleviate the burden on Border Patrol officers and the Department of Homeland Security, which dealt with close to half a million asylum claims in 2023, an all-time high.
“People who have entered illegally claim asylum,” Kruttiventi said. “I don’t believe most of these people are asylum seekers.”
Asylum seekers have been a priority for Swalwell, both in responding to their humanitarian crises and the bureaucratic barriers that keep them in limbo. In the fallout of the Trump administration’s family separation policy for unauthorized migrants in 2019, Swalwell spoke to the human rights organization Amnesty International about the criminalization of refugees.
“As a nation of immigrants and refugees, we have a special obligation to welcome immigrants and refugees,” Swalwell said in the 2019 interview with Amnesty International. “U.S. border authorities should not turn away refugees without registering or even determining if they are truly seeking refuge. We must increase funding for improved processing, medical care, court administration, and legal services.”.
Both candidates agreed the immigration system desperately needs reworking. Kruttiventi said the country needs to move beyond its partisanship to pass the “comprehensive immigration reform,” while Swalwell said America’s immigration system is “fundamentally broken” and “outdated.”
For Kruttiventi, immigration is a fundamental part of his story of pursuing the American Dream, but he fears that many legal immigrants are having second thoughts after recent years of heightened crime and inflation.
“We came here looking for the American Dream, safety and education, and overall prosperity,” Kurttiventi said. “When crime becomes legal and neighborhoods are unsafe, we (immigrants) begin to think whether this is what we signed up for. Going back home isn’t an option.”
But after two decades without significant immigration reform, could change be around the corner with the next Congress? Swalwell believes that Democrats are up to the task.
“Democrats want a fix. Republicans want the fiction,” Swalwell said. “Democrats wake up every day to work for working people.”
Note: Thank you for visiting our website! We strive to keep you informed with the latest updates based on expected timelines, although please note that we are not affiliated with any official bodies. Our team is committed to ensuring accuracy and transparency in our reporting, verifying all information before publication. We aim to bring you reliable news, and if you have any questions or concerns about our content, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!
