Stop-and-frisk is the long endured practice whereby police officers in New York City have stopped and questioned hundreds of thousands of pedestrians, particularly African-Americans and Latinos, obtaining them on claims of "reasonable suspicion of criminal activity," though that charge has proven to be untrue. Mayor Michael Bloomberg indicated that the program targets men of color because "African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans are more likely to be violent criminals and victims of violent crime." The program functions as sanctioned racial profiling and permitted discrimination, though newly elected Mayor Bill de Blasio has promised to reform the policy.

The discrimination that Latinos face in this country is thorough, and occurs at every level. Pew Research indicated that they are the second most discriminated-against ethnic group after African Americans, while an Associate Press-Univision Poll found that Hispanic (61 percent) face significant discrimination, compared to African-Americans (52 percent) and women (50 percent). Eighty-one percent of Latinos said that Hispanics confront a great deal of discrimination, while 59 percent of non-Hispanics thought that Hispanics were discriminated against.

"I see it in people's faces, in the way they react," said Raymond Angulo, 66, a Mexican-born U.S. citizen and retiree from Pico Rivera, California, in an interview with Huffington Post. "It's gotten somewhat better, but it's still there. I feel like it's never going away."

Latino community members have confessed to being singled-out, demeaned and prejudged. Discrimination has worsened within the last few years in light of issues such as immigration reform. In fact, 70 percent of immigrant Latinos indicated that discrimination is a barrier that keeps Latinos from succeeding, and half of native Latinos feel the same.

Many members of the 52 million+ Latino population feel bound by disadvantages. Nearly 30 percent of Hispanics lack health coverage; less than 30 percent graduate from high school; more than 20 percent of Latinas below the age of 18 live below the poverty line; 22 percent of Latinos experience workplace discrimination, compared to 6 percent of whites; Latinas only make 54 cent for every dollar earned by a white, non-Hispanic males, which means an annual loss of $24,000; more than six million Latino children were born into poverty in 2010; and more than 20 percent of all Hispanic households in America have five or more people.