USHCC Responds to Donald Trump's Presidential Campaign Rhetoric

United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce6 hours agoGlobeNewswire

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WASHINGTON, June 30, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) was disappointed by the harsh and insensitive rhetoric expressed by Donald Trump, Chairman and President of The Trump Organization and founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts, during his recent 2016 Presidential Campaign announcement. Trump has claimed that Mexican immigrants bring problems like drugs and violent crime into the United States - an extreme and exclusionary position that has no basis in fact and is completely inappropriate in our national political discourse.

According to a study published by the George W. Bush Institute, in collaboration with the USHCC, America's immigrant community is highly entrepreneurial:Critics charge that Trump is promoting a racist agenda under the protective umbrella of the Republican Party, at a time when leading candidates, including Governor Jeb Bush and Senators Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, have acknowledged the economic and political contributions of the Hispanic community and all immigrants to our country.

The study also found that employment rates are highest among America's burgeoning immigrant community:

Also, despite his assertions U.S. incarceration rates are, in fact, lowest for the immigrant population, disproving Trump's claims that immigrants are a major source of criminal activity.

Finally, while Mr. Trump has been dismissive of our country's relationship with Mexico, it is worth noting that according to the U.S. Department of State, Mexico is the third largest U.S. trading partner after Canada and China, and our country's second largest foreign supplier of petroleum. The U.S.-Mexico border is one of the busiest, most economically important borders in the world, with nearly one million legitimate travelers and nearly a billion dollars worth of goods legally crossing the border each day.

"Donald Trump's statements - which may be dismissed as the rantings of a fringe candidate - certainly do not reflect the leadership qualities needed in 2016 and beyond, and are unwelcome in today's political conversation," said USHCC President & CEO Javier Palomarez "Mr. Trump should be well-aware of the critical role foreign-born workers play in the success of his enterprises. We commend those who have denounced Trump's extremist rhetoric, and look forward to a national, fact-based, dialogue with corporate leaders and Presidential candidates, regardless of political affiliation, that is predicated on dignity, respect, civility and compassion for all people."

Trump's anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic positions are diametrically-opposed to those expressed by the leaders in the hospitality industry, and we are proud to see that Trump's competitors have openly acknowledged the important contributions these workers make to their businesses. In a 2013 open letter to Congress, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, whose member companies include Hilton, Marriott, Starwood, Lowes hotels and others, highlights that the hospitality industry is proud and fortunate to include many immigrants among its 1.8 million associates throughout the country.

Given his announcement, the USHCC has abandoned Trump hotels as possible sites for its 2016 National Convention in Miami, Florida, and its 2016 Legislative Summit in Washington, D.C., the two largest gatherings of Hispanic business leaders in America. The USHCC also commends Univision and Comcast NBCUniversal for ending their business relationships with Mr. Trump in response to his recent remarks.

The USHCC will continue to do business with like-minded individuals and corporations that are committed to equality, diversity, inclusion and the fair treatment of all who call our country home.

About the USHCC

Founded in 1979, the USHCC actively promotes the economic growth and development of our nation's entrepreneurs. The USHCC advocates on behalf of nearly 3.2 million Hispanic-owned businesses, that together contribute in excess of $486 billion to the American economy, each year. As the leading organization of its kind, the USHCC serves as an umbrella to more than 200 local chambers and business associations nationwide, and partners with more than 240 major corporations throughout the United States.

For more information, visit www.ushcc.com

Follow us on Twitter @USHCC

It's hypocritical to rip Seahawks' Richard Sherman for rant!

By  BILL PLASCHKE

For more than three hours Sunday, millions of Americans joyfully cheered a football game whose players are paid to be angry and callous.

But then, moments afterward, America was offended when one of those players spewed anger and callousness?

The national vilifying of the Seattle Seahawks' Richard Sherman for his taunting televised postgame remarks Sunday after the Seahawks' 23-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game cuts to the heart of sports hypocrisy.

CLICK HERE to watch famous interview of Richard Sherman!

        

Everyone wants to watch their heroes make incredible plays under pressure, but few can stomach the depths of the emotion required to make those plays. After cornerback Sherman literally single-handedly sent the Seahawks to the Super Bowl by tipping a pass away from San Francisco's Michael Crabtree in the end zone, he plumbed those depths.

"I'm the best corner in the game," Sherman screamed at Fox Sports interviewer Erin Andrews as a stadium rocked around him in celebration. "When you try me with a sorry receiver like [Michael] Crabtree, that's the result you're gonna get. Don't you ever talk about me."

When Andrews asked who was talking about Sherman, he shouted, "Crabtree!" and then added, "Don't you open your mouth about the best or I'm gonna shut it for you real quick."

Throughout the country, mouths opened in shock. The reaction on social media was quick and decisive. Sherman was overwhelmingly ripped for being a loudmouth, a bad sport, and even a thug. Criticism mounted further when Sherman called Crabtree "mediocre" during a postgame news conference. He was also nationally ripped for giving the choke sign after the play, a taunt for which he was penalized.

On Monday, Sherman showed remorse for his actions in a text message to ESPN's Ed Werder in which he wrote, "I apologize for attacking an individual and taking away from the fantastic game by my teammates … that was not my intention."

But the damage has already been done. This bright and engaging kid who ranked second in his class at Compton Dominguez High before later graduating from Stanford is somehow America's new sports villain. He is the main reason why many folks will be cheering for the Denver Broncos in the upcoming Super Bowl. He is the latest example of everything that is wrong with the modern professional football player.

Yet the truth is, he is the example of everything that is wrong with some modern professional football fans.
A guy fights for three hours and winds up throwing the punch of his life in the most important professional moment of his life, and America expects him to immediately start blowing kisses?

There is no defense for Sherman's taunting of Crabtree after the play. He was a crude jerk. This was just another millstone in a career lacking in decorum. He was indeed a bad sport.
But in his comments later, he was simply the embodiment of his sport. He was a symbol of the mindless recklessness required to play a game that will likely scar him for life, and the dark motivation often necessary to summon that swagger.

If one scans the wording, it is obvious that some of the criticism of Sherman is rooted in blatant racism. But some of it also seems to stem from a subtle racism. When a white player talks trash, he is considered quirky and cool. But if that same smack comes from a black player with dreadlocks and a snarl, he is a cretin? Sherman didn't say anything that hasn't once been said by the likes of Larry Bird and John McEnroe, yet nobody ever called them a thug.

America would like all of its football players to embrace victory with the class of a Peyton Manning, but most of those players have different jobs than Peyton Manning. Most of those players don't win games with their arms and brains, but their bodies and their fears. Most of those players have to summon up strength from places unimaginable, building on slights unknown, finding courage in corners both dark and remote. Richard Sherman is one of those players.

He saved that game for the Seahawks with the boldness that America demands of its football players. His mistake was in being honest about it.

bill.plaschke@latimes.com
Twitter: @billplaschke

Lessons from a doctor congressman's first year

Rep. Raul Ruiz, right, talks with fellow California Rep. Mike Honda as they descend the House steps in Washington. Ruiz, a physician from Palm Desert, just served his freshman year in Congress after defeating incumbent Rep. Mary Bono Mack. (Bill Clark / Roll Call)

Rep. Raul Ruiz hoped to change Congress. But his most enduring impact may turn out to be as an inspiration to youths back home.

By James Rainey

LA Times

Reporting from Palm Desert

Rep. Raul Ruiz was settling in on another flight home to the Southern California desert when the flight crew put out an urgent call for passengers with medical expertise.

Ruiz hurried down the aisle to find an elderly man collapsed in his seat. The Democratic congressman, an emergency room physician before voters sent him to Washington, struggled to find a pulse on his unconscious patient, measured his blood sugar and readied a defibrillator.

The man, a diabetic, had normal glucose levels, but a companion warned that he had already suffered one stroke and was on a pacemaker. After reviving for a time, the man fainted again, and Ruiz recommended an emergency landing. By the time the American Airlines jet touched down in Raleigh, N.C., less than an hour later on that October day, the patient had been stabilized.

The portrait of the doctor-turned-lawmaker-turned-doctor might encapsulate Ruiz's first year as a congressman. He arrived last January with one of the hottest stories of the freshman class: the political naif from just this side of nowhere who knocked off a seven-term incumbent. But his biggest splash came on a day flying away from the Capitol and practicing his old trade.

Living up to a promising biography is no small task in Washington, where newcomers often think they have the cure for what ails the government, only to face problems that appear terminal. The rookie Ruiz confronted the additional challenge of serving in the minority party in a House renowned for both partisanship and ineffectiveness.

And his most notable votes -- staking out the middle ground and defying the Democratic party line on a pair of modifications to the Affordable Care Act -- weren't going to make him a hero on the right or the left.
It's no wonder that he focused much of his energy on a district that stretches from Hemet and Palm Springs to the Arizona border. His deepest emotional attachments remain there too.

Ruiz and his mother, Blanca Ruiz, in a date palm grove near their home in Coachella in 2012. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Ruiz speaks frequently to his mother, who recently returned for a season sorting oranges and lemons in a Coachella Valley packing house. He makes nightly phone calls to his fiancee, who works back home as an emergency room nurse. And young would-be doctors, whom he mentors, can't get enough of the story of the prodigal Dr. Ruiz.

He grew up in modest circumstances in Coachella, the son of two farmworkers. The bed that he and his older brother shared in the family trailer converted during the day into the kitchen table.

His mother told the children they should try to help others who had less and that becoming a doctor would be one of the best ways to do that. Raul raised about $2,000 of his college tuition by going door-to-door, telling donors he would come back one day to serve his poor hometown.

And, after earning three graduate degrees at Harvard and working with the poor in the developing world, he did. But Ruiz eventually decided he wanted to have a broader impact. So he set his sights on Congress and a seat held by Mary Bono Mack, for 14 years the Republican incumbent.

Bono Mack, the widow of entertainer Sonny Bono, had been secure for years in a faithfully Republican region and had $500,000 more on her side in their showdown. The Republicans depicted Ruiz as a radical leftist, in the thrall of Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi. He talked about bringing a doctor's common sense to government. In the end, buoyed in part by the growing numbers of Latino voters, the onetime long shot won by almost six percentage points.

At his swearing-in, as his mother fastened the congressional pin on her son, Ruiz lauded her years of hard labor and sacrifice in the fields. Her eyes filled with tears. Overcome with emotion, Ruiz couldn't finish his speech.

But triumphal moments don't linger on Capitol Hill. At one of his first meetings on the Natural Resources Committee, Ruiz listened in dismay as Democrats and Republicans savaged one another. Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Los Angeles), a friend who spent years in the California Assembly and Los Angeles City Council, told him: "Dude, you haven't seen anything yet."

I will always be a physician, first and foremost. That's who I am. That's what feeds my soul."

— Rep. Raul Ruiz

In Washington, Ruiz has kept every appearance of remaining the hometown boy. Short and a bit round, he could pass for younger than his 41 years. He bounces on his toes when talking to visitors. At the annual baseball game against House Republicans, he wore his old Coachella Valley High School uniform and played a sharp second base.

Ruiz has a tendency to say things, apparently without guile, that would make more rugged political players roll their eyes. Take, for instance, his anecdote about sharing his congressional lapel pin with students.
"I tell them to think of a happy thought or about their dreams and to just to close their eyes and hold it," the congressman said.

Many of his House colleagues still recognize him as "the doctor," and he patiently responds to their requests for free medical advice. A senior member leaned in close to Ruiz as the two hurried to a vote recently, whispering about whether he needed a new medication for an eye condition.
Being the doctor gives him a profile. "I will always be a physician, first and foremost," Ruiz said. "That's who I am. That's what feeds my soul."

Ruiz speaks during a 2012 campaign rally in Palm Desert. (Bill Clark / Roll Call)

And what of being a member of what political scientist Norman Ornstein called "the do-nothingest Congress in our lifetime"? Ruiz was determined to make his own way: moving incrementally, working across the partisan aisle when possible and embracing the old saw that all politics is local.

At home, Ruiz has deployed his staff to resolve constituent problems with the healthcare law. He held several forums with military veterans to discuss problems securing benefits. One initial piece of legislation, still pending in committee, would require the Defense Department to more rapidly share records with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

His most controversial vote supported a Republican proposal that would have delayed for a year the requirement that Americans purchase healthcare. Ruiz said the postponement made sense because President Obama already had authorized a similar delay for businesses providing employees with insurance. The congressman also voted for a GOP bill that would have allowed new customers to buy less robust health policies than dictated by the Affordable Care Act. (Both proposals failed to advance in the Senate.)

"Did it cause an uproar? You bet it did," Elle Kurpiewski, manager of the Coachella Valley Democratic headquarters, said of Ruiz's votes, though she said many party members were won over once they heard Ruiz's explanation.

Real, hard-working people see it is improving their lives already."

— Rep. Raul Ruiz on Obamacare

Ruiz, nonetheless, asserted continued support for his party's central domestic initiative. "Real, hard-working people see it is improving their lives already," he said.

Ruiz's expected opponent in November's election rejects those explanations. State Assemblyman Brian
Nestande (R-Palm Desert) accused the congressman of "trying to jump back and forth" on Obamacare, adding: "That is not intellectually honest."

Ruiz has won over some voters in his first year, but his most ardent backers may come from his life as a physician, in particular about 150 high school and college students who belong to Future Physician Leaders and their families.

Ruiz and fiancee Monica Rivers started the group four years ago, with the doctor informally advising young people on how to get to medical school and help their community. The organization has mushroomed into a network of classes on medicine and leadership, a mentorship system for shadowing doctors and a research program on public health issues.

On a late summer night at the UC Riverside satellite in Palm Desert, formally dressed students showed off posters about their studies on diabetes, smoking and other challenges. Though soft-spoken and only 5-foot-7, the doctor towered over the event for students of modest backgrounds, who said they wanted to follow his path.

Hector Sanchez, a 19-year-old UCLA sophomore, grew up in the tiny desert community of Chiriaco Summit. He said his occasional meetings with Ruiz recharge his dream of becoming a doctor.
"I just want to be next to him as much as I can," the teenager said, "so it can rub off."

Contact the reporter

Follow James Rainey (@LATimesrainey) on Twitter

Jeff Denham, California GOP Rep., Challenges Party On Immigration

By John Whitesides

CERES, Calif., Nov 26 (Reuters) - For most Republicans in the U.S. Congress, a large gathering of Hispanic voters to discuss immigration would be politically perilous - an invitation to complaints about the party's longtime resistance to measures aimed at helping undocumented immigrants.

But when Republican Rep. Jeff Denham walked into a meeting with hundreds of his Hispanic constituents at a church in California's Central Valley this month, he was met with applause, praise and a hand-lettered "Thank You" sign.

Denham, 46, is a rarity in the U.S. House of Representatives: one of only three Republicans in the chamber's 231-member majority who support a Democrat-sponsored bill that would give millions of undocumented immigrants a legal pathway to U.S. citizenship.

So far, Denham is a voice in the wilderness of the Republican Party, nationally. But in California, he is closer to the mainstream and represents a path forward for his party that begins by facing the human side of undocumented immigrants and extends to a view that immigrants can drive the economy.

Denham, who said he learned Spanish to help court his wife Sonia, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, recalled watching his father-in-law battle the U.S. immigration system and said he would keep lobbying colleagues in Congress on the issue.

"There are some Republicans who have said some outrageous things" about undocumented immigrants, Denham said after meeting with the crowd in Ceres, a city of 45,000 people. "My job is to make sure the entire party is not branded that way."

Immigration - an issue that gained political urgency for both parties after last year's elections revealed the potency of the nation's exploding Hispanic population - has lost momentum in Washington, overshadowed by debates about federal spending and Democratic President Barack Obama's troubled healthcare makeover.

But in California, home to nearly one-third of the nation's estimated 53 million Hispanics, the calls to revamp immigration laws to deal with 12 million undocumented immigrants nationwide have remained front and center. And Obama has said he wants action on the issue.

For Denham, whose district is 40 percent Hispanic, being a cheerleader for immigration reform is a political necessity, even though it has sparked some criticism from conservative groups that typically favor his party.

For other California Republicans, it could be a step toward viability for a party suffering the political consequences of a boom in Hispanic population and a backlash against Republican-backed immigration laws of the mid-1990s that have since been eliminated. Democrats now hold every major state office in California, and significant majorities in the state's legislature and congressional delegation.

Many California Republicans see their experience as a cautionary tale for the party in states such as Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and Texas, where Democrats hope to turn growing Hispanic minority populations into building blocks for permanent political majorities.

"Republicans at the national level and in other states need to look at what's happened in California, because those demographics will affect the whole country," said Ruben Barrales, president of Grow Elect, a California group that recruits Republican Hispanics to run for public office.

The committee, one of several Republican efforts in California to build ties to the Hispanic community, has helped about 50 Hispanic Republicans win local offices across the state. Barrales hopes to break triple digits next year.

"Given the demographics, there is no way that Republicans get from where they are today to becoming a governing party without winning Latinos," said Barrales, a former presidential aide in Republican George W. Bush's administration. "We've got to change the face of the Republican Party so it's reflective of the demographics of the state."

Nationwide, the Republican share of Hispanic votes in presidential races has dropped from Bush's 44 percent in 2004 to Mitt Romney's 27 percent in 2012: the lowest Republican share since 1996. At the same time, the Hispanic share of the national vote increased from 8 percent to 10 percent and is still climbing.


'A CATASTROPHIC TRAIN WRECK'

In California, Hispanic support for Democrats surged after the passage in 1994 of a Republican-backed ballot measure, Proposition 187, that was designed to block state benefits for immigrants who did not have legal status.

Before 1992, Republicans had won California in nine of 10 presidential elections. Since 1992, they have lost California in all six elections, and the state is now one of the nation's most reliably Democratic.

"The fallout since Proposition 187 has been a catastrophic train wreck for the Republican Party in this state," said Gary Segura, a political scientist at Stanford University and co-founder of the polling firm Latino Decisions.

State Republicans have taken a more moderate tack recently, giving substantial support to a law passed by the California legislature and signed by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown making undocumented immigrants eligible for driver's licenses, one of several bills expanding their rights

National Republican leaders acknowledge the demographic threat to the party and tout an immigration overhaul as the first step to recovery among Hispanics. But the effort has hit a roadblock in the House of Representatives, where it is a hostage to divisions within the Republican Party.

Many conservative Republicans oppose a bill passed by the Democrat-led Senate that would give undocumented workers hope of becoming U.S. citizens.

Such Republicans see the bill as an "amnesty" measure that would reward those who broke the law, take jobs from current citizens and lead to lower wages for all blue-collar workers. Some House Republicans also fear a possible primary challenge from the conservative Tea Party movement if they back the bill.

Denham counters such concerns by arguing the Democratic bill would a $1 trillion boost to the U.S. economy by adding millions of new taxpayers to the system. He also noted that it would create a 13-year process to gain citizenship.

"That's a long time," he said. "It's an issue of fairness."

Obama has called on Congress to act soon on immigration. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said last week that immigration reform was "absolutely not" a dead issue but he would not say when the topic might surface again.

In Ceres, Denham noted that since he became the first Republican to support a version of the bill offered by House Democrats, two other Republicans - Californian David Valadao, whose Central Valley district is 70 percent Hispanic, and Florida's Ileana Ros-Lehtinen - have backed the bill.

"Call other members' offices," Denham urged those in Ceres. "Ask them why" they aren't supporting an immigration overhaul.

Some who heard Denham's pitch remained wary of the Republican Party's commitment to Hispanics, who play a big role in the Central Valley's labor-intensive farming economy.

"Supporting immigration reform is a big first step, but he needs to do a little more than that," said Victor Orosco, a mechanic from nearby Riverbank, where Denham attended a Spanish-language Mass at a Roman Catholic church and briefly addressed the congregation in Spanish before the Ceres meeting.

Orosco questioned whether Denham and other Republicans who now back immigration reform were making a politically inspired conversion. "Now that they see people going to the other team, now they want to support us," he said.

Brenda Noriega of Fresno, a community organizer for the activist group Faith in Community, said after the Ceres meeting that there was still broad distrust of Republicans among Hispanics.

"We are going to vote for the people who support us," Noriega said, making it clear that conservative Republicans did not qualify.

"In the Latino community, we know the Tea Party," she said dismissively. "We know where they stand."


'A LONG WAY TO GO'

Denham rejected the notion that his stance was a re-election ploy, calling it a commitment to fix an immigration system that has torn families in his district apart through deportations and bureaucratic wrangling.

Denham and other California Republicans said winning over Hispanic voters who distrust their party on key issues such as jobs, the economy, healthcare and education would require becoming a more consistent presence in Hispanic communities and putting a more empathetic face on a party often viewed as out of touch with minorities' concerns.

"Some of the neighborhoods that I've walked over the years, I've been the first Republican who has walked there," said Denham, who was re-elected last year with 53 percent of the vote over Democrat Jose Hernandez, a former astronaut.

Denham appears frequently on Spanish-language television networks such as Univision and Telemundo to promote - and often defend - Republican positions. But he acknowledges the party has a long way to go on immigration.

"Some of my colleagues just say, 'Uphold the laws.' That is a very easy statement to make," he said. "We have a long way to go and a very short time to get there."

He said reaching out to contact Hispanics is difficult for many Republican House members in less diverse districts, saying they "tend to stay in their comfort zones."

Nationwide, only 24 Republicans represent a U.S. House district where at least 25 percent of the population is Hispanic - and 11 of them are in California, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

"If there is any state in the country that really needs to deal with immigration reform, it is California," said Wayne Bridegroom, a Baptist pastor in Modesto who offered a prayer for Denham at the Ceres event.

Andy Vidak, a white Republican cherry farmer who won a special election to the California Senate this year from a Central Valley district that is mostly Hispanic, said winning over Hispanics requires Republicans "to go where Republicans rarely go, and where Democrats take the voters for granted." (Editing by David Lindsey, Peter Henderson and Jonathan Oatis)

Interview # 3: Los Angeles Talk Radio KTLK 1150AM

Interview with Los Angeles Talk Radio KTLK 1150AM host Josefa Salinas: Latinos and the Presidential Election....is our time finally here?

CLICK here to listen to the interview (begins @ minute 22:00 of the show)