For the first time in almost 40 years, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) will not have the sitting president attend its annual convention. The organization cites Trump’s controversial actions and remarks about Latinos as the reason they did not issue an invitation.
“The president was not invited this year based on his slanderous comments and strongly disagreeable actions for the Latino community in the United States,” Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, the group’s chair, told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
CHCI, one of the leading institutions in the development of young Latino leaders, is holding its annual convention and annual awards gala in Washington this week. While the organization is nonpartisan, only two republicans sit among the Advisory Council’s 25 members of Congress.
Trump has continuously ruffled feathers among the Latino community, referring to Mexican immigrants as “criminals, and demanding a wall be built along the U.S.-Mexico border. Most recently, Trump pardoned former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who ignored court orders to continuously target immigrants, and repealed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), leaving 800,000 vulnerable to deportation.
Every sitting president since Jimmy Carter in 1979 – except George H.W. Bush – has attended at least once CHCI’s annual event commemorating Hispanic Heritage Month. Trump will engage in friendlier Latino audiences later this week at the Latino Coalition annual convention.
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