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My name is Stephanie Valencia and I am the Latino liaison 2 00:00:09,265 --> 00:00:11,500 and immigration liaison for the Presidential transition team. 3 00:00:11,500 --> 00:00:14,002 My job is to reach out to groups across the country 4 00:00:14,002 --> 00:00:19,064 who care about Latino issues and how certain issues affect the Latino community. 5 00:00:19,064 --> 00:00:22,198 I also do work on immigration issues, so we want to make sure 6 00:00:22,198 --> 00:00:26,935 we bring in as many voices and as many groups that care about the immigration issue. 7 00:00:26,935 --> 00:00:32,136 We just had a meeting with over forty Latino leaders from across the country 8 00:00:32,136 --> 00:00:35,619 that represent the Latino community, from civil rights organizations 9 00:00:35,619 --> 00:00:38,592 like LULAC and National Council of La Raza 10 00:00:38,592 --> 00:00:42,446 to the National Association of Latin American and Carribean Communities. 11 00:00:42,446 --> 00:00:46,811 These are the organizations that work in our communities every single day. 12 00:00:46,811 --> 00:00:48,948 They represent community based organizations 13 00:00:48,948 --> 00:00:51,177 and they are the national voices for the Latino community. 14 00:00:51,177 --> 00:00:54,660 We discussed personnel and staffing at the cabinet level 15 00:00:54,660 --> 00:00:59,257 through the more department level and White House Level appointments. 16 00:01:00,070 --> 00:01:03,070 In order to have the right perspective, we need diversity in the federal workforce. 17 00:01:04,435 --> 00:01:07,593 I think there is a definite correlation between domestic policy 18 00:01:07,593 --> 00:01:10,287 and the fact that in the Department of Education 19 00:01:10,287 --> 00:01:13,213 we only have four percent Hispanic workforce. 20 00:01:13,213 --> 00:01:16,881 In the Department of Health and Human Services I think it's what, 3.9? 21 00:01:16,881 --> 00:01:22,797 Commerce, 3.6. Critical agencies where our is community is being impacted. 22 00:01:23,453 --> 00:01:27,911 They talked about health care, hate crimes, civil rights, education, 23 00:01:27,911 --> 00:01:31,974 and how all these issues are affecting and will continue to affect 24 00:01:31,974 --> 00:01:34,389 the fastly growing Latino population. 25 00:01:36,015 --> 00:01:39,219 The Hispanic population is the worst off in terms of all disparities in the country 26 00:01:39,219 --> 00:01:41,727 according to all the U.S. HHS Health Disparities reports. 27 00:01:41,727 --> 00:01:44,374 The worst off in terms of health insurance, 28 00:01:44,374 --> 00:01:48,785 the worst off in terms of having access to any health facility, 29 00:01:48,785 --> 00:01:51,200 health services, mental health services. 30 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:56,030 Let me just say that access is number one and financing within the system 31 00:01:56,030 --> 00:01:59,860 that is going to be affordable and reach the people where they work 32 00:01:59,838 --> 00:02:05,109 where they live, where they play, not through clinics and hospitals. 33 00:02:05,109 --> 00:02:09,126 You've got to change and think about that health care means 34 00:02:09,126 --> 00:02:11,355 having healthy lifestyles in our communities 35 00:02:11,355 --> 00:02:13,800 and having financing that gets to our communities. 36 00:02:14,885 --> 00:02:18,600 During this current economic crisis the Latino community is being hit 37 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:22,663 especially hard when it comes to unemployment and joblessness rates. 38 00:02:22,663 --> 00:02:26,564 A good portion of the discussion centered around, how can we ensure 39 00:02:26,564 --> 00:02:29,815 that President Elect Obama's economic recovery effort 40 00:02:29,815 --> 00:02:32,300 will have the greatest impact on the Latino community. 41 00:02:33,058 --> 00:02:38,360 Public investment should not just be looking at economics per se. 42 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:43,213 It's also the education departments, training programs, retraining programs. 43 00:02:44,978 --> 00:02:49,064 On education there is a deep concern in our community: the drop out rate. 44 00:02:49,064 --> 00:02:52,083 Not only the drop out rate, but of those kids who don't drop out 45 00:02:52,083 --> 00:02:55,868 how many can afford to go to college and have the ability to go to college? 46 00:02:55,868 --> 00:02:57,958 So how do we make college more accessible 47 00:02:57,958 --> 00:03:00,300 and more affordable to more Latino students? 48 00:03:02,129 --> 00:03:04,157 We have to find a way of increasing 49 00:03:04,157 --> 00:03:08,012 the amount of grants versus loans for young people. 50 00:03:08,012 --> 00:03:13,353 That includes increasing the gap on Pell, which was done already this year, 51 00:03:13,353 --> 00:03:18,438 but certainly has to increase further, and develop some sort of 52 00:03:18,438 --> 00:03:21,990 forgiveness programs for loans that burden Latino students. 53 00:03:22,896 --> 00:03:25,896 We also talked about immigration, 54 00:03:25,896 --> 00:03:27,122 that's obviously a huge concern in the community, 55 00:03:27,122 --> 00:03:31,116 and how President Elect Obama, who talked a lot about this during the campaign, 56 00:03:31,116 --> 00:03:33,531 a comprehensive approach to immigration reform, 57 00:03:33,531 --> 00:03:35,700 how we will move forward in approaching that. 58 00:03:36,619 --> 00:03:39,382 The bottom line here is we are going to hold him to the promise that he made 59 00:03:39,382 --> 00:03:42,679 to get a comprehensive immigration reform through this congress, 60 00:03:42,679 --> 00:03:47,463 and so, that's to us very important that we help him fulfill that promise and we 61 00:03:47,463 --> 00:03:51,062 are going to hold him accountable, but he doesn't have to do this alone. 62 00:03:51,062 --> 00:03:54,062 We all aren't going to do it alone. Whether it's on the Dream Act, 63 00:03:54,062 --> 00:03:56,217 whether it's putting a stop to the raise, 64 00:03:56,217 --> 00:03:59,235 whether it's the two eighty-seven G enforcement agreements, 65 00:03:59,235 --> 00:04:02,440 you've got a lot of expertise around the table. We're willing to help engage you, 66 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:05,690 and we look forward to working with folks on the inside of the White House 67 00:04:05,690 --> 00:04:09,243 who we know are very invested in this issue to make sure that that happens. 68 00:04:09,661 --> 00:04:14,351 We also talked about hate crimes-there's a growing rate of hate crimes amongst 69 00:04:14,351 --> 00:04:18,299 the Latino community, especially amongst immigrant populations. 70 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:21,689 We have seen about a thirty-five percent 71 00:04:21,689 --> 00:04:24,336 increase in hate crimes in the Latino community. 72 00:04:24,336 --> 00:04:29,119 We have also seen a forty-eight percent increase in hate groups. 73 00:04:29,119 --> 00:04:34,608 Most of it is immigrant, anti-immigrant, anti-Latino. 74 00:04:34,608 --> 00:04:38,547 So we strongly urge this administration to the need 75 00:04:38,547 --> 00:04:44,514 for the civil rights department to pursue more activism into that, 76 00:04:44,514 --> 00:04:49,000 more legislation that would give us the power to investigate those hate crimes. 77 00:04:49,344 --> 00:04:52,943 There are a lot of issues with regard to Latinos and environment. 78 00:04:52,943 --> 00:04:56,333 Environmental justice, and the environmental quality 79 00:04:56,333 --> 00:04:59,979 that many Latinos that live in urban areas face. 80 00:05:00,861 --> 00:05:03,183 In terms of environmental justice, 81 00:05:03,183 --> 00:05:05,412 I think probably the preeminent one that would most benefit 82 00:05:05,412 --> 00:05:09,174 the Latino community would be the codification of President Clinton's 83 00:05:09,174 --> 00:05:13,771 executive order on environmental justice, executive order 12898. 84 00:05:13,771 --> 00:05:18,740 It's been eviscerated over the last eight years, and it needs to be codified. 85 00:05:19,832 --> 00:05:22,479 One area where we also focused a lot on is green jobs and 86 00:05:22,479 --> 00:05:26,983 how do we ensure that the Latino workforce that is rapidly rapidly growing 87 00:05:26,983 --> 00:05:31,790 is adequately trained to take on this new sector of employment 88 00:05:31,790 --> 00:05:34,200 that President Elect Obama is really pushing for. 89 00:05:34,809 --> 00:05:38,059 As we look forward to building a green economy, 90 00:05:38,059 --> 00:05:40,428 it is going to be critical that we ensure that Latinos 91 00:05:40,428 --> 00:05:42,796 are receiving the training in the retrofitting. 92 00:05:42,796 --> 00:05:46,302 I know mayors across the country. I've heard Manny Diaz speak, 93 00:05:46,302 --> 00:05:50,389 Mayor Daley in Chicago, Mayor Villaraigosa in Los Angeles. 94 00:05:50,389 --> 00:05:54,337 This is going to be a way to stimulate and keep their local economies 95 00:05:54,337 --> 00:05:57,378 and the folks in the local economy in jobs, 96 00:05:57,378 --> 00:05:59,607 which in turn will have other effects. 97 00:06:00,536 --> 00:06:03,536 To really bring all these leaders and voices that represent 98 00:06:03,536 --> 00:06:05,343 these communities all across the country 99 00:06:05,343 --> 00:06:08,361 together in one room was really, really powerful. 100 00:06:08,361 --> 00:06:13,330 And for a community that has fought and struggled to come together 101 00:06:13,330 --> 00:06:16,117 and to show their power, and to be at the table - 102 00:06:16,117 --> 00:06:19,159 we finally are, and that's very exciting.