Last week’s election of Donald Trump has left many in the Latino community living in fear.
{mosads}Across the country, millions of undocumented people are afraid to go to work, take their kids to school and leave their homes. Almost immediately, organizations like League of United Latin American Citizens were inundated with calls regarding their child’s DACA status (DACA is an immigration policy set by President Obama by executive order which protects some immigrant youth who arrived in the United States as children from being deported).
The day after the election, children told their teachers they were afraid their parents would be deported. Young kids now feel empowered spreading anti-immigrant epithets such as “build a wall” and “go back to Mexico” to their Latino classmates.
Although Trump has indicated that he plans to bring Americans “together as one united people”, Trump’s appointment of Stephen Bannon as chief political strategist is dubious and suggests otherwise.
Bannon is the former head of Breitbart News and has close ties to the “alt-right” and white nationalism.
He has been condemned by civil rights leaders for views they deemed as anti-Semitic and racist. In fact, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and other white nationalist leaders praised the appointment of Bannon as a signal that Trump will live up to his most controversial positions on immigration, Muslims, and refugee resettlement.
Although Trump was elected as president, there is no question that the Latino community demonstrated its electoral power.
Advocates and organizers were not surprised that Latino voters easily exceeded projections of 13 million voters and came out strong in the important battleground states of Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Virginia and Nevada. We also expect that the surge in Latino voter participation will be a trend we continue to see as Latinos become more involved in the political process.
The same advocates will be using the evidence of increased Latino involvement to pressure the Trump administration and other elected officials to fairly address the needs of the Latino community.
As part of this effort, LULAC stands ready to work with our nation’s elected leaders to advance the policy positions of the Latino community.
We intend to oppose any laws that further the xenophobic agenda of the Trump administration and will vehemently rally against any law that targets individuals based on their ethnicity or identity.
Wilkes is the executive director of the League of Latin American Citizens, which advocates for the political, economic and educational rights of Hispanic Americas. Follow him on Twitter@BrentWilkes. Follow LULAC on Twitter @LULAC
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