OMAHA — Top leaders of the nation’s oldest and largest Latino civil rights group made a rare visit to Nebraska this week to meet with business and civic officials as they seek to strengthen a local presence and forge new opportunities for Latinos and immigrants.
“We see it as the new frontier and growth opportunity for LULAC and Nebraska and the Heartland,” said David Cruz, senior advisor and national communications director for the Washington D.C.-based League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
Cruz said the trip marks the first to a state chapter for president Roman Palomares since he was elected to his post July 1, a sign he said recognizes Nebraska’s “strategic importance” for the country’s fastest-growing economic and labor demographic.
The two were joined by Hector Flores, past president and senior advisor to the LULAC president.
Used like a piñata
State LULAC director Elsa Aranda of Lincoln said a key meeting was held with Bryan Slone, president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry. The hope, she said, is to develop a pilot program that better taps the immigrant workforce to address the state’s labor shortage, and perhaps spread that model nationally.
“Immigration is being used like a piñata right now politically,” said Flores. He said LULAC is interested in ensuring that rights of immigrant workers are respected and in demonstrating how their contributions can contribute to local economies.
The group on Friday toured Metropolitan Community College’s 100,000-square-foot Automotive Training Center, which opened in late 2021 to prepare students for high-paying careers in the auto industry.
Palomares said he was impressed with the operation. He foresees LULAC working with Metro, whose student population is 18% Latino, to help build upon programming and perhaps bring successful models to other LULAC sites.
“My big deal is growing the youth and opportunities for young adults,” said Palomares.
While not a new presence in Nebraska, the LULAC advocacy organization, which has 535 councils and 145,000 members nationwide, has recently started to become more active locally.
It identifies as nonpartisan. But after their Omaha meetings, the LULAC team headed to Nevada, where members of the organization’s PAC executive board and others planned Saturday to announce their endorsement of Kamala Harris for president.
The political arm of the nearly century-old LULAC, formed in 1929 to protect rights of Americans of Mexican descent, says it marks the organization’s first endorsement of any president.
Attention to Nebraska
Within the last year, the national LULAC sent out media releases drawing attention to Nebraska events, including a fatal shooting of two Hispanic men by off-duty Omaha police officers and the Omaha City Council’s decision to overlook “three highly educated, successful Latino candidates” to fill a vacant seat and instead appoint a white male to represent the council district with the highest concentration of Latinos.
The national group also called out the Nebraska Chamber for not inviting LULAC to an earlier event regarding the state’s immigrant workforce.
Palomares said it was the same general subjects that prompted the visit: underrepresentation of Latinos in elected positions, police relations and immigration.
He said much work is ahead, but that he felt “well received” by those he met, including Slone, a few Omaha City Council members, a deputy Omaha police chief, Douglas County Commissioner Roger Garcia, State Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha.
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