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As the presidential campaign speeds toward the finish line
political rhetoric coming from Donald Trump around immigration
and immigrants is more and more incendiary.
What does that make them feel like?
The president of the company where Trump appeared Tuesday
and won a key responded to that question on behalf
of his largely Hispanic workforce.
They're legal workers in this country.
Some are citizens, some are working on citizenship,
but legal, they don't like being painted in that same brush.
For a look at the state as a whole and its Hispanic workforce,
we turn to Jorge Franco, CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
of Wisconsin.
And thanks very much for being here.
A pleasure to be with you, Federica.
Thank you.
So as to that question, what is it like for Hispanic people in Wisconsin
to hear Donald Trump's call for mass deportation
and how he refers to immigrants?
Well, you know, it's an election season.
And I think we've all grown accustomed,
especially when you've been around the block.
The way I have, you're accustomed to the rhetoric that
that comes out at these times.
You know, some take it over the top and, you know,
when we think back on the first time he entered the race,
of course he entered with a bang.
If you remember the escalator visit and I think many were,
you know, thoughtful about what was heard at the time.
And Board of Security is very important to all of us.
You know, we Hispanics, our concerns are very similar
to many others, economy.
Who doesn't want a good economy?
That's a big focus for us.
But it's interesting we've grown accustomed to what we hear.
And it comes from both sides, really.
And in our case with the Chamber, I should say,
we're a friend to everybody.
We don't pick one or the other.
But we do have our opinions,
and we're smart about what's going on in the economy,
and we know how to navigate these things.
So is your Chamber endorsing in this race?
No, we don't endorse.
We're a 501c3.
Now, in years past, we've even hosted debates.
And we would welcome the opportunity to host this debate
that's not going to happen as I understand it.
But who knows what will happen in these final days?
But no, we don't endorse.
And when we do things like invite candidates to our events,
we have to invite in balance.
If we invite one side, we must invite the other.
And that's just our own sense of fairness that we apply.
We welcome candidates.
We welcome to reach out and speak with us and talk to us.
And we do talk to them.
But we do not endorse the Hispanic Chamber.
What is your message to Wisconsin
about the importance of our immigrant workforce,
especially in dairy and agriculture?
Oh, it's vital to the state economy
if immigrants were to be gone tomorrow.
Just in those sectors.
And we're not saying that's the only sectors they work in.
They're in manufacturing.
There are many aspects of the many sectors of the state economy.
But just in those two alone, if they were gone tomorrow,
our economy would tank.
We're so dependent on the workforce
and just look at the numbers in the last, you know,
over the past year,
I think we've been as high as 10 million vacancies in America.
And of course, you know, we're not the immigration cops
at the Hispanic Chamber,
and that's not of concern to us.
We help anyone and everybody who walks through the door,
even non-Hispanic.
But the point is, if the Hispanic immigrants working in those
industries alone were to be gone tomorrow,
our economy in Wisconsin would tank.
We're so dependent on dairy and agriculture.
Are these workers in Wisconsin undocumented?
Many are what you call undocumented.
We refer to them as unauthorized.
But the answer to that question is yes.
There are, there are many.
And that's not just in the United States.
And then there are immigrants who are authorized.
They're refugees.
And so it's a complexity of issues that emerge
and come up.
But the big issue is whether or not, you know,
someone's taking somebody's job away.
And that, you know, those kinds of things,
under most effective public policy,
can be addressed because we need the human capital.
It's just statistically what's going on in the U.S. economy
and certainly in the Wisconsin economy.
And our GDP would take a big hit absent that human capital today
that some call undocumented or what we call an authorized immigrants.
What are your members saying about all of this?
Well, our members, their number one focus today is workforce.
Certainly everybody wants a contract, wants to sell their products,
wants to be positioned to do that.
And the chamber helps them do that, helps them find capital,
helps them start up, helps them grow.
We're deep experts in management and technical assistance.
But their number one issue is workforce.
Finding and keeping workers and retention.
It's become a major dilemma.
And that's a complexity of issues which we happen to be expert in.
We'd love to talk about that, but we might go on for that one for an hour or so.
But a workforce in finding the workers.
And many people don't realize that the unauthorized population,
immigrant population, pays taxes.
Uncle Sam issues them and I-10 in lieu of a Social Security number.
Somebody who doesn't have a Social Security number cannot be employed
but can become an employer.
They get a federal employer ID number.
Uncle Sam and the federal government wants them to hire Americans.
And so there's a tremendous amount of growth in that sector, believe it or not.
So it's not well understood.
But certainly going back to your question, the big issue is workforce.
It's where are we going to find workers?
And of course, the Hispanic population on average is youthful.
Nine to ten years younger on average than the white population in America.
Did you favor the Congressional Immigration Reform Measure,
reportedly tanked by Donald Trump?
You know, we didn't understand it well enough.
It came and went so quickly and getting a chance to really dissect into it
and see what's there.
The good news from our perspective is to solve this dilemma in a manner
that works for American workers, American employers.
The American economy doesn't even need legislation.
We're not talking about citizenship.
Now that is definitely, that's for the Congress to decide how and if that gets
navigated and developed.
And I was very close to the Senate floor back years ago when President Bush
bought a comprehensive immigration reform to the Senate floor.
Senator Bill Frist was the majority leader at the time.
I had dinner with him the night before that went to the floor.
And immediately it was killed, of course.
It didn't get anywhere.
It was instantly out.
And it was the conservative right that took it out at that particular time.
But the point is, and we have nothing against the conservative right or the liberal left.
We really don't.
In many ways, we are like them in our own way, again, as a friend to everybody.
But the good news is that this can be solved where American workers first
get an opportunity to take those jobs.
And then if they're not and they continue to be vacant after pick a date, 30, 60,
90 days, then do it in a manner that where an authorization occurs.
We've had DACA for those who are familiar with deferred action for childhood
arrivals.
And similar actions can really help solve this for the American economy in a
very productive way.
And that would be something we would support.
You say that it is the ultimate entrepreneurial act to leave your country in search of work.
How so?
Absolutely.
If you think about it for a moment, you know, we, the Hispanic culture is highly
entrepreneurial.
And we have employers coming to us every day asking us to send them Hispanic workers
because of the Hispanic work ethic.
And we remind them, wait a minute, you understand we can't and you can't
decide on whether you hire somebody or not based on race, religion, creed, color,
whatever it may be.
And you have to be careful with that too.
However, if you are interested in us helping solve your workforce development
issues, we can and do do that.
But it has to be done properly in a regulatory compliant manner.
Coming back to, you know, to the, to the issue, you know, we're, we're talking about.
There are just the good news is that there are solutions that could be implemented today.
And regardless of who wins the election, we hope to work with those parties to get something
put in place that works for everybody.
Jorge Franco.
Thank you very much.
Federica.
Thank you so much.
Bye-bye.
That was great.
Thank you.
Really?
Thank you.
I understand it airs on Sunday.
It airs in Milwaukee in Milwaukee on Sunday.
Does anyone know what Marissa will send you the information?
Is it possible you could send me a link to the, to your website where the show might
be present?
Yes, indeed.
Yeah.
Yeah, that would be great.
We will do that.
Federica, can't thank you enough for the opportunity and great to see you.
And other topics to talk about.
Stay tuned on the, on the, on the news front.
We can't announce or discuss anything now, but stay tuned for a major announcement around
workforce leadership and development that the chamber is leading on and will have dramatic
impact on the, on the Wisconsin workforce, especially the low modern income Wisconsin
workforce.
LMI is what we call them.
56.6 million LMI workers in America today.
So thank you for that.
Well, wait, wait, wait.
When is this coming?
When should we be looking for that?
It's a moving target, but if we, things were to stay on track and, and get us through.
I'm assuming we're off camera and this would be area.
Yeah.
This is off the record, but we could be, we were hopeful to make a big announcement at
the end of this month, that timing.
It could still happen, but I don't think it will.
We're talking about, hopefully, within three months.
Okay.
Within three months and that.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And we do do exclusives with friends, you know, what we call for media friends.
We're not expecting any part, you know, partiality or any kind of special treatment.
But, you know, if you make the case for, hey, why announce something here, it would be,
it would be a national splash.
It will get the attention nationwide, especially of, I'll say,
that's a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very
confidentially federal banking regulators in Washington, D.C. will be tracking this very
closely.
And the reason is because they mandate certain private funding to help LMI persons in America.
And this one has a great degree of innovation that they're already, we're in contact with
them now at the executive level.
And they're very, very patiently waiting for things to emerge.
So, you know, this is a, this is a really important thing to say.
And I think that's a great thing to say.
Just to make sure I have a full, really, really, like, what's going on.
Do you have a national network?
Of course, PBS is nationwide.
Yeah.
I love to figure out and talk about that.
And by the way, I, I wasn't it, I'm sorry, I can't, her name is slipping me now.
The show that was done.
Okay, that's it. I've seen a couple of her shows recently. I don't have a chance to watch them all,
but loved some of the basically, you know, the way she takes to task, you know, those she interviews.
And that's always refreshing and kind of nice to see, especially when it comes to
issues that affect the 100 million low and moderate income people in America. That's our
special space. We have a very special care in that space. And we formed a U.S. coalition that's
based in Washington, D.C. that currently has entities that serve 180 countries from the little
peanut Hispanic chamber. We're statewide, but you know, we're batting way above our our our our
batting league. But and this will be what's tied to the announcement we're talking about if
things soundtrack. All right. Well, we wish you luck with it staying on track and we will stay
tuned for that. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. And Marissa, could you send me an email that
includes Frederica's email and yours and Jeannie and myself and copy Miriam on that Miriam helps
get those in front of me and and do send us the link. I'm eager to see what the show looks like
when it comes on and love it. Love it. Love it. That's great. Thank you so much. Thank you,
Frederica. Thank you. All right. Nice to talk with you.
Thank you, Jeannie. Thank you.