Latino Advocacy Groups Deliver Half Million Petition Signatures to 'Dump Trump' From SNL
Latinos made their voices heard on Wednesday night, calling for NBC and "Saturday Night Live" executive producer Lorne Michaels to "Dump Trump."
Since Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was announced to host "SNL" on Nov. 7, Latino advocacy groups and congressional lawmakers criticized Comcast, NBC and the late-night program for providing him a platform despite his rhetoric about Latinos and immigrants.
A coalition of national, regional and local Latino organizations united outside the Comcast Building in Manhattan to deliver 522,080 signatures and vocally declare "SNL" to disinvite Trump.
Luis Torres, director of policy and legislation for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) told Latin Post that the protest's biggest message is to make it clear that Trump's rhetoric is "irresponsible," and Michaels is making a mistake for given the businessman a platform.
"We need to hold people accountable. NBC is a big platform and giving it to Donald Trump is a big risk, and he is not the right person for this," said Torres, adding that the evening's protest is part of a push to have people vote. "The reason why we have people like Donald Trump rising in power is because there are people who aren't voting. There are people who are not getting engaged, they're letting other people vote for them, caucus for them, get involved for them and these are the results that we have."
"[Wednesday's protest] is part of an ongoing series of actions to get the Latino community to come out and ready and engaged and ultimately in the voting booth to make a difference and choose the right people," added Torres.
Javier Nieves, chair of the Campaign for Fair Latino Representation, said he wanted to help echo the outcry from the Latino community about NBC's "unacceptable" decision to give Trump the platform of the late-night program.
"We are filled with indignation at the fact that this channel -- that has always tried to come in and say they're doing a great job of representing our community -- has not decided that for the sake of ratings to bring in a hatemongerer, a race baiter, a person who has called out the Mexican people to criminalize a whole race of people, and we are not going to tolerate this, we're going to definitely go against anything they perpetuate or try to bring into our community and we're going to organize," Nieves said.
Nieves noted that the protest is not an exclusive message toward the Republican presidential candidates but also for the Democrats.
For Shaan Chilukuri, he volunteered at the protest to support the message that Latinos are part of the U.S., and they do not endorse the Trump's rhetoric, which NBC and SNL should denounce.
Making the trip from Washington, D.C. to New York City was Elisa Aquino, an intern for LULAC's education and youth programs department. Aquino shared that there was a sense of duty to make the travel to represent the Latino community and make sure such rhetoric has no place in society.
Aquino, who does watch SNL once in a while, said she typically views an "SNL" host as charismatic, funny and someone she can laugh to, but knowing Trump was hosting, "I don't think this is the type feeling I want to have watching him host a big show like this."
According to LULAC Executive Director Brent Wilkes, another round of protests will occur on Saturday evening if Trump is still hosting the show. The Saturday protest is currently scheduled at 6 p.m. EST at Trump Tower.
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