Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM), officially kicking off September 15, is a time to celebrate the history, accomplishments, and diversity of the Latino community. While observed for decades now, Hispanic Heritage Month has taken on a heightened significance, following racist attacks by politicians seeking to demonize the community as a whole. So why in the world would any self-respecting Latina or Latino attend a Hispanic Heritage Month “celebration” thrown by one of those politicians?
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) leader, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, tweeted to Donald Trump this week. “I decline your invitation to attend your Hispanic Heritage Month White House reception. Your rhetoric, actions and policies betray the values upon which HHM was founded. Let me explain.” In her letter, Lujan Grisham lays out a history of Trump’s racist attacks, from launching his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists,” to rescinding the popular Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, to lying about the Hurricane Maria death toll.
“During your presidential campaign and as president, you demonized and dehumanized the Hispanic community and spread fear and untruths,” her letter states. “You have ignored and recently tweeted lies about the devastation and loss of life in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, compared immigration to an infestation, and attacked a judge because of his Hispanic heritage. That rhetoric is not only unbecoming of the President of the United States; it has no place in American political discourse.”
Lujan Grisham singles out the kidnapping of thousands of innocent migrant children at the border as the administration’s most despicable crime against the community yet. “No other policy that your administration has pursued was more heinous than tearing children away from their parents as they fled extreme violence from Central American countries,” she writes. “Using your power to intentionally inflict trauma and fear on children violated common decency, betrayed our nation’s deepest held beliefs, and led to a national outcry condemning your actions.”
Trump officials still have 211 of these children under U.S. custody, recent numbers show, including six kids age five and under. The parents of 165 of those children have already been deported, including five kids age five and under. The administration kidnapped these children with no plan in place on how or when to ever reunite them with their parents, and it continues to have them in custody in blatant violation of a federal judge’s order.
Donald Trump despises Latinos, period, and a pendejo who throws brown children into cages one day and then panders the next doesn’t deserve one second of our time, and no amount of Trump Tower taco bowls, paper towels, or fake White House celebrations will ever change that. “The hypocrisy of attending a reception,” Lujan Grisham continued, “that is supposed to honor their contributions and heritage after your administration has threatened their safety and uprooted their lives is glaring.”