2. Not All Issues Find a Place in Prime-Time
Although immigration is an important issue for Latinos, especially recent arrivals, some issues were still unaddressed. For all the talk of Clinton’s decades long advocacy of children and families, none of policy discussions focused on the current plight of young Central American refugees that continue to pour in, or the way that the Administration’s current detention policies criminalize and separate families. Also, despite several Hamilton-related name drops and the Puerto Rican delegation’s forceful declaration of being the only “all-Latino” delegation during Tuesday’s roll-call vote, the economic crisis and political status of Puerto Rico was relegated to “off the convention floor” conversations. This, despite the crucial role that Puerto Rican voters will play during the election process, especially in key battle ground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.
“There are more than 300,000 Puerto Ricans in the South Florida area, in the Tri-County area,” Natascha Otero-Santiago, Board member for the newly formed National Puerto Rican Agenda, told Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman during a convention segment. “A lot of people give attention to the Puerto Ricans in Orlando, Tampa, the I-4 corridor, but a lot of people don’t know about how many Puerto Ricans have moved and migrated to South Florida in the last 10 years. So, I think it’s necessary to pay attention to that Puerto Rican community of professionals that are moving to South Florida.”