With the current debate on immigration reform raging on Capital Hill, Latino business leaders from around the country gathered Wednesday to meet at the White House to let the Obama administration know that Latinos care about more than just immigration reform.
Other critical topics and problems facing the nation, such as the economy and jobs, are on Latinos' minds, too, business leaders told White House officials at the inaugural Hispanic Business Leaders Forum.
"The narrative that has surrounded the relationship between America, Mexico and all of Latin America has been one that's fairly negative," said Javier Palomarez, chairman of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, as reported by NBC Latino. "Job creation, economic development, innovation, entrepreneurship. These are the topics of today. It goes beyond being a Latino," he said.
Palomarez said that the Wednesday meeting was the largest contingent of Hispanic business leaders ever to visit the White House to speak about a litany of issues that "are critically important, not just to the Latino community in America, but to all of America."
Among notable Hispanic business leaders at the meeting were Futuro Fund co-founder and Puerto Rican attorney Andres Lopez, Martin Cabrera, from Cabrera Capital Markets and Monica Lozano, the CEO of media company Impremedia.
The meeting came amid a serious push in Congress for the passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would grant a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S. as well as bolster border security measures. As in the past, the proposal--this one supported by a bipartisan panel of Democrat and U.S. Senators--has its supporters and opponents, the latter opposed to providing what they dub as "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants.
Business leaders spoke on the need for the nation to adopt immigration reform.
"There is a need in this country for comprehensive immigration reform," said Lozano on Wednesday. "What is an important part of the conversation, though, is how that will benefit our economy."
However, business people at the meeting also pointed out that negatives of nearby Mexico, which shares a border with the U.S., are often hammered on to prominently while the positive sides of the nation are often swept under the rug.
"Rarely do you hear - rarely - that Mexico still is the number two trading partner to the United States, has been for decades and will likely continue to be," Palomarez said. "Mexico is a bigger trader with the United States than England, than France, than Germany, than Japan, and India."
Mexican officials have said in the past that they are welcoming of the new push and the principles of the immigration reform front by the U.S. According to studies from the Mexican government, roughly 60 percent of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are estimated to be from Mexico.
Earlier in May, as the New York Times reported, President Obama flew to Mexico to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to talk about working together to curb organized crime in Mexico and discussing the strengthening of the economic times between the two neighboring nations.
Notably, however, Peña Nieto sidestepped questions on immigration reform, only wishing the U.S. "the best in this push that you are giving to immigration."
Currently, Congress is on a Memorial Day weeklong break, but the immigration reform battle still awaits them when they reconvene, with conservatives in the House and Senate still posing a threat to the bill.
Some Republicans fear that Democrats will end up benefiting more from the added wave of legal immigrant citizens, while others have claimed moral issues with allowing people who entered the country illegally any pathway to citizenship. However, after the crushing defeat that the GOP was given at the November polls thanks to Latino voters in swing states, Republican party leaders have been urging for their own party to come around on immigration reform.
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