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By Jordan Fabian

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Thursday pledged in Mexico that the military would not be used to expel undocumented immigrants from the U.S.

Speaking in Mexico City, Kelly pledged the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) sweeping new immigration enforcement rules would not result in “mass deportations.”

“Let me be very, very clear, there will be no, repeat, no mass deportations,” he said. “Everything we do in DHS will be done legally and according to human rights and the legal justice system of the United States.”

The comments came just hours after President Trump called the new deportation push a “military operation,” which threatened to heighten the concerns of immigrant-rights groups and the Mexican government.

“There will be no, no use of military force in immigration,” Kelly said, telling the news media only “half of you get that right.”

Kelly may have been referring to a draft proposal, which was never adopted, to enlist roughly 100,000 National Guard troops to apprehend undocumented immigrants in nearly a dozen states.

The guidance, which was made official Tuesday, vastly increases the number of immigrants considered priorities for deportation.

It also directs immigration enforcement agencies to hire thousands of new agents to apprehend people living in the country illegally, with local police and sheriffs’ offices enlisted in the effort.

National Guard troops have been used in the past to staff observation posts, watch surveillance footage and build fencing. But they have not been used to arrest immigrants targeted for deportation.

Trump however, sowed confusion over the military’s role with his remarks earlier Thursday at the White House.

“We’re getting really bad dudes out of this country,” he said at a meeting with manufacturing CEOs. “And at a rate nobody has ever seen before. And they’re the bad ones. And it’s a military operation.”

Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week met with top Mexican officials in order to smooth over tensions that were exacerbated by the new immigration policies.

Your Editor Hopes: At that level, talking will work.

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Discussions at a Radio Conference

When the industry’s biggest players gather together at the Hispanic Radio Conference, no topic is too big or too small, and no subject too controversial. They could discuss the impact changes at the FCC will have on you. Where digital programming is going, and where they see new revenue opportunities. How they are finding, developing, and retaining sales and on-air talent. They could speak about politics and the industry’s role in a new, uncharted landscape.

The Hispanic Radio Executive Leadership Roundtable is unscripted. But, because these are the industry’s leaders, their reactions and observations will help guide your plans and response to budgets, sales and programming for the coming year.

From Wall Street investors to your local direct sales, ratings, and technology, Hispanic radio leadership’s perspective on today’s industry will help you navigate what’s coming tomorrow.

Moderator:

Jose Valle served as president of Univision Radio from 2010 to 2015, leading the transformation and modernization of what was a traditional radio group into a best-in-class “listener first” based organization. Over the last year, he served as president of Political & Advocacy Group Sales for UCI, overseeing political advertising strategy and sales to advocacy groups, trade associations, and campaigns for all UCI’s platforms. Earlier in his career he was VP/GM of Univision Radio Los Angeles. Before joining UCI, he was president and GM of Telemundo’s flagship station, KVEA.

Panelists:

Albert Rodriguez is COO of Spanish Broadcasting System, a job he had held since 2012. He is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company and oversees the revenue and profit performance of the company’s consolidated operations, including radio, television, interactive and entertainment divisions. Previously, Rodriguez was the chief revenue officer of SBS’s television segment and GM of the Miami television market from October 12, 2010 to January 6, 2011, GM of the Miami television market from January 21, 2010 through October 11, 2010, and GSM for the Miami radio market from November 1999 through January 2010. Before joining the company’s television segment, Rodriguez was the GSM of SBS’s radio properties in Miami.

Norberto Sanchez is chairman and CEO of the Norsan Group, which runs Norsan Multimedia, a Spanish-language communications company that includes 12 radio stations in the Southeast, four of them covering the Charlotte market; the company also owns Spanish-language newspapers. Sanchez started his company in Atlanta and has gradually been moving more and more operations to Charlotte. Apart from the communications industry, the Norsan Group has a large role in the food industry, including a restaurant and catering division and Prime Meats, a USDA meat-processing facility serving the hospitality industry.

Ismar Santa Cruz is vice president/managing director of radio strategy for Univision Communications, overseeing content strategy, music genre curation, and continual success for Univision’s radio portfolio and leading programming initiatives for its 64 owned-and-operated stations in 15 top U.S. Hispanic markets and Puerto Rico. He also plays an integral role in Univision Music’s multi-platform strategy. Santa Cruz joined UCI to co-found the internal strategic consulting and consumer research division of Univision Radio. Santa Cruz has been instrumental in achieving double-digit audience growth year-over-year on broadcast and digital platforms, developing Univision’s Sonic Logo across all brands, and identifying Univision’s 2014 FIFA World Cup anthem, “Adrenalina.”

Enrique Santos is chairman and chief creative officer of iHeartLatino, heading iHeartMedia’s Latin direction and strategy. His daily morning show is syndicated nationally via Premiere Networks and airs live from iHeart’s TÚ 94.9 in Miami. Born to Cuban parents in Chicago, Santos moves freely between the Hispanic and mainstream American radio landscapes. His bilingual broadcasts are a crossover hit, combining humor, social satire, and political commentary to bridge the cultural and generational divide of a diverse cosmopolitan audience. No matter how busy his schedule, Santos has never lost his community ties and continues volunteering as a reserve police officer for the City of Miami Police Department.

Your Editor Adds: And enjoy José Valle´s dry and effective sense of humor.

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NiLP Commentary

By Angelo Falcon

“Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!”

—Credo of DC Comics’ “Bizarro World”

In the Trump Presidency, we find the mirror image of what we have come to know as American politics. There is the Secretary of Education who doesn’t support public education, a failed Labor Secretary nominee who didn’t support the minimum wage, an EPA Secretary who sues the EPA and a HUD Secretary who admitted he doesn’t know how to run a government agency, not to speak of a President who praises Russia and disses friends like Australia.

As we enter into Trump’s bizarro world, it is not clear how one gets out of it. Do strategies that influence “normal” politics work as well in a Trump regime? While in general, this is a major challenge for the Trump opposition, it is especially problematic for a historically marginalized group like Latinos.

Columnist Ruben Navarrette recently argued that “The relationship between Trump and Latinos is in bad shape, but it’s not yet beyond repair. It can get better over time if both sides are willing to put in the effort to improve it. Let’s get started.” On the other hand, others are arguing for the need for a total resistance against Trump. Trump’s vicious campaign attacks on Mexicans and immigrants, the current deportation campaign and reference to DACA student as gang members and drug dealers unambiguously defines a basic oppositional frame for Latinos regarding Trump.

The current tendency by Trump’s critics seems to largely rest on focusing on him personally. This was the basic strategy of the Clinton campaign and, well, it didn’t seem to work. This, therefore, raises the question of why it would work following this approach’s defeat at the polls? Will calling him “authoritarian,” the chaos candidate, a perpetual liar or a nut case (which I would consider stating the obvious) have an impact on his millions of supporters who already know this and unabashedly embrace these qualities.

As it is obvious at this point, Trump has continued his campaigning at a time when he should be governing. He has basically taken Sidney Blumenthal’s notion of a “permanent campaign” to an extreme, which political scientists have largely seen as detrimental to effective) governing. The big question is whether Trump’s current approach is sustainable over time and its implications for strategies to hold him and his people accountable.

This creates a particularly challenging political environment for the Latino community. What are some of the strategies Latinos need to develop to effectively hold Trump’s feet to the fire?

Increase State and Local Political Representation. The Latino community will need to place a greater priority to participating in the redistricting process at all levels of government, but especially at the state and local levels. This will require greater attention to the development of the 2020 Census, carefully monitoring the Census Bureau’s plans to change the way they plan to collect Hispanic data. This may include the need to defend the collection of racial-ethnic Census data vital to the promotion of civil rights.

Legal Strategies. Given Trump’s penchant for ignoring the rules of the American constitutional system, the role of legal defense organizations becomes more critical than ever. For Latinos, this means giving exponentially greater financial and political support to groups like LatinoJustice PRLDEFandMALDEFas well as the ACLU (all three headed, by the way, by Latinos). These organizations represent the first line of defense of Latino rights. The federal courts’ role in blocking the Trump Muslim travel ban is a good example.

Reinvent or Abandon the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has historically taken the Latino community for granted despite this community’s voters being so loyal to this party). This didn’t change in 2016, and despite Tom Perez’ consideration as DNC Chair as the Obama/Clinton candidate, this continues to be a problem. It is clear that there is an urgent need for Latino leaders and activists to focus on either making the Democratic Party more accountable and progressive or simply abandon it for a third party. The extremism of the Trump Administration should not result in an unreflective position that presents the Democratic Party as the automatic political savior of Latinos and other communities of color.

Strengthen Policy Analysis at Federal and Local Levels. The Latino community needs to hold Trump accountable for the many promises he made during the campaign that would retain or further promote rights and benefits that Latinos and other poor and working people have earned historically. This will require the strengthening of the Latino organizational infrastructure that monitors and analyzed public policies at the federal and local levels of government. This includes initiatives like the one being led in part by NYC Council SpeakerMelissa Mark-Viverito to form a national coalition of sanctuary cities to provide a united front against Trumpian aggression. There is also a need for coalitions like the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) and progressive national Latino organizations will need to be supported and greatly expand their capacity to reach out much more broadly to their community outside of the Beltway. Part of this will require holding the philanthropic community accountable for providing much greater support for these efforts within the Latino community.

Holding Republicans Accountable. As the Tea Party-type of town hall meetings protesting the repeal of Obamacare and growing anti-Trump protests point to, strategies need to be developed to hold the Republic Party accountable to the Latino community along the lines followed by the Koch brothers and thier ilk. Too often the Latino community has placed most of its support with the Democratic Party opening the Republicans to more extreme rightwing Latino players or leaving a vacuum filled by non-Latino controlled rightwing think tanks and operatives. This is also necessary to take advanrage of potential conservative Republican Party conflicts with the Trump Administration over policy and political issues.

More Militant Latino Congress Members. The current Latino Congressional delegation is the largest in history. Although it is largely Democratic, it also includes some Republicans, It is important that Latinos press these Congresspersons to be more creative and aggressive, more along the style of Chicago Congressman Luis Gutierrez, in raising issues with the Trump Administration as well as with their respective party organizations. Despite being the minority party, the Democrats in Congress were able to derail Tump’s nominee for Labor Secretary that resulted in the substitute nomination of the way more acceptable Alexander Acosta to this labor post as the first Latino on the Trump Cabine (although clearly as an afterthought). The exclusion this past week of Latino Democrats from a Congressional meeting with the Department of Homeland Security helps put their current politically marginalized role in perspective. During their next Hispanic Heritage Month public policy conference in September, for example, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute should be encouraged to promote more concrete organizing strategies beyond the generic policy discussions they usually present.

More Latino-Inclusive Media, Given the dramatically growing role of the mainstream media as a foil to the Trump Administration, it becomes ever more critical for Latinos to greater increase their representation as reporters, commentators, experts and executives on the major news programs and organizations. This makes the role of media advocacy organizations like the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists increases in significance in promoting a more representative media,

These strategies must be based on the understanding that Trump’s election revealed a fundamental weakening of the role of basic American institutions in stabilizing the country’s politics. These range from the weakening of the major political parties, the dealignment of the Electoral College from the popular vote, the volatility of the political impacts of demographic and social class changes, and so on. It is from such a deeper understanding of the 2016 electoral malfunction that can point to the most effective ways that Latinos can survive the Age of Trump. President Agent Orange has raised our people’s political consciousness, promoting greater coalition-building between labor, community, faith-based groups, gays and communities of color, making the consequences of nonparticipation clearer than ever. Will this finally awake this “napping giant”? The Trump Presidency makes this, of course, merely a rhetorical question.

Angelo Falcón is President of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP), for which he edits The NiLP Report on Latino Policy & Politics. He can be reached at [email protected].

Your Editor Adds: And Angelo loves to receive comments –for or against- his points of view

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Republicans would trust Trump over GOP leaders if they disagree

A Pew Research Center Report

As President Trump prepares for his address this week to a joint session of Congress, Republicans say they are more inclined to trust the president, rather than GOP congressional leaders, if the two sides disagree.

For their part, Democrats are far more concerned that congressional Democrats will not do enough, rather than go too far, to oppose Trump.

The latest survey by Pew Research Center, conducted Feb. 7-12 among 1,503 adults, shows how members of both parties are coming to grips with Washington’s changed political dynamics:

In disputes with Congress, Republicans would trust Trump. About half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (52%) say that if Trump and Republican congressional leaders disagree on an issue, they would be more likely to trust Trump. About a third (34%) say they would trust GOP leaders if they have a disagreement with the president.

Democrats want their party to challenge Trump. Nearly three-quarters of Democrats and Democratic leaners (72%) say their bigger concern is that congressional Democrats will not do enough to oppose Trump and his policies. Just 20% say they are more concerned that Democrats in Congress will go too far opposing Trump and his policies.

GOP leaders’ job approval improves. Job approval for Republican congressional leaders has increased sharply – from 19% to 34% – since September 2015. In contrast, there has been little change in Democratic leaders’ job ratings (34% then, 37% now).

The rise in approval of GOP leaders is largely attributable to a turnaround among Republicans: 68% approve of GOP leaders’ performance now; only 26% did so two years ago.

Low favorability for congressional leaders. None of the four top congressional leaders – Republicans Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi – is viewed particularly favorably. The shares offering no opinion of each leader are relatively high, particularly Schumer, the new Senate Democratic leader (36% no opinion).

Views of congressional leaders

For most of the past six years Republicans have given GOP leaders in Congress relatively low approval ratings. Republicans have controlled the House since 2010 and took control of the Senate in 2014.

In September 2015, a tumultuous period during which former House Speaker John Boehner resigned, just 26% of Republicans and Republican leaners approved of the job GOP leaders were doing. Today, with Republicans in full control of Congress, as well as the White House, 68% of Republicans and Republican leaners approve of their job performance.

Democrats’ views of their party’s leaders have shown less change over this period. Currently, 58% of Democrats and Democratic leaners approve of their job performance. In September 2015, 59% of Democrats gave the party’s leaders positive approval ratings.

When it comes to favorability ratings for congressional leaders, none is viewed more favorably than unfavorably.

As in the past, favorability ratings for Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi are more negative than positive. Only 27% view McConnell favorably, while 45% view him unfavorably; about a quarter (28%) have no opinion of the Senate Majority leader. A third view Pelosi favorably, while 49% view her unfavorably and 18% have no opinion.

The public has mixed views of Paul Ryan (36% favorable, 43% unfavorable, 21% no opinion). These views are little changed from October 2012, when Ryan was running for vice president as Mitt Romney’s running mate. Opinions of Chuck Schumer also are mixed; Schumer is not as well-known as other congressional leaders (30% favorable, 34% unfavorable, 36% no opinion).

In contrast to congressional leaders, nearly all Americans have an opinion of Donald Trump. As reported on Feb. 16, 41% of the public has a favorable opinion of Trump, while 57% view him unfavorably.

Partisans’ views of individual congressional leaders are deeply divided. Republicans and Republican leaners have much more favorable views of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan than do Democrats and Democratic leaners, and the reverse is true for Minority Leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

Schumer is not very well known, even among Democrats: 37% view him favorably, 26% unfavorably, while 36% have no opinion.

Meanwhile, John McCain has high favorability ratings among members of both political parties. Currently, 57% of Americans view McCain favorably, while 33% view him unfavorably. Nearly identical shares of Republicans (59%) and Democrats (57%) view McCain favorably.

Opinions of McCain among Republicans are virtually unchanged from September 2013, when 56% of Republicans and Republican leaners viewed him favorably. However, favorable opinions of him among Democrats have increased 19 percentage points since then (38% then, 57% today).

Partisans’ views of how their parties should deal with Trump

On balance, Republican and Republican leaners are more likely to side with Donald Trump over Republican leaders if there is a disagreement between them on an issue. About half (52%) say they would be more likely to trust Donald Trump, while only about a third (34%) say they would be more likely to trust Republican leaders in Congress.

Younger Republicans (those under 40) are the only subgroup of Republicans who say they are more inclined to trust Republican congressional leaders over Trump in the case of a disagreement between them. Just 36% of Republicans under 40 say they would be more likely to trust Trump in this scenario, while 52% say they would more likely to trust Republican leaders. Majorities of older Republicans say they would be more likely to trust Trump.

Democrats and Democratic leaners are much more concerned that their representatives in Congress will not do enough to oppose Donald Trump and his policies than they are that congressional Democrats will go too far in their opposition (72% vs. 20%).

There are modest differences in these views across subgroups of Democrats: Large majorities of liberal Democrats (77%) and conservative and moderate Democrats (68%) both say their bigger concern is that Democrats in Congress will not do enough to oppose Trump’s policies.

Your Editor Insists: Let’s try to understand each other

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