Tony Tijerino is President and CEO of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. He is a native of Nicaragua and a graduate of the University of Maryland. Tijerino’s experience includes stints at the public relations giant Burson Marsteller, and at Nike and the Fannie Mae Foundation. He’s been showered with numerous honors and awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National PTA, and recognition from Hispanics in Philanthropy and the MALDEF Award for Human Rights. Tijerino is also a recipient of the Ohtli Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Mexican government to an individual. He’s also worked on immigration issues and was recognized by FWD.US for his work with migrant families on the border.
Author Archives: Patricia Guadalupe
Raised in Puerto Rico, Patricia Guadalupe is a bilingual multimedia journalist based in Washington, D.C., covering the capital for both English and Spanish-language media outlets. She is also an adjunct professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C., and with the Washington bureau of the South Florida Media Network at Florida International University. She is a graduate of Michigan State University and has a Master’s from the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: U.S. Supreme Court Affirmative Action ban will hurt students of color
The high court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina wipes away decades of SCOTUS precedence upheld even by justices named by Republican presidents. According to a recent report in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, ending affirmative action in admissions to the flagship University of California system “caused underrepresented minority (URM) freshman applicants to cascade to lower-quality colleges” and that a greater number ending up leaving higher education without completing their degree. According to the most recent data, while 53% of high school graduates in California are Latino, just 22% were enrolled in the UC system in 2020.
Posted inEspañol
COMENTARIO: El presidente mexicano, LULAC y NAACP critican los planes de DeSantis de cerrar la frontera y su agenda antimigrante
El presidente de México exhortó a los votantes latinos de EE.UU. a que no apoyaran al gobernador de Florida, Ron DeSantis, quien inició su campaña presidencial en su intento de reemplazar al presidente Joe Biden con la promesa de “cerrar” la frontera. La controversia de Florida llegó hasta el palacio presidencial en la Ciudad de […]
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: Mexican president, LULAC and NAACP slam DeSantis’ plans to shut down border and his anti-migrant agenda
DeSantis recently signed legislation that among other things places criminal penalties on anyone who transports an undocumented person across state lines, requires employers with 25 or more workers to verify their immigration status, and demands hospitals who accept Medicaid ask immigration status to patients and report the data. It also repeals a law that allows some undocumented immigrants to obtain a license to practice law in the state. Barring any potential court action, the DeSantis legislation goes into effect on July 1.
Some undocumented workers in South Florida are not showing up for work or leaving job sites because of the law.
Posted inEspañol
COMENTARIO: Llega a su fin la congelación de pagos de préstamos estudiantiles
El secretario de Educación Miguel Cardona, fue muy claro: el congelamiento de los pagos de préstamos estudiantiles que duró años está llegando a su fin. “El período de emergencia llegó a su fin y en consecuencia estamos preparando a nuestros prestatarios para poder reiniciar el proceso”, testificó Cardona la semana pasada durante una audiencia del […]
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: Student loan payment freeze is ending
Almost 70% of Latino student borrowers have current debt, says a report by the Education Data Initiative. The same report says that Latino borrowers were “the most likely” of any race or ethnic group to delay marriage and children because of student loan debt, and are the second-most likely (after Black Americans) to borrow high amounts from private lenders – close to 70% of Latino students who borrow from private lenders take out loans of $40,000 or more.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: Democrats criticize Biden sending troops to the border
Members of the president’s own party are smacking down the plan for troops at the U.S.-Mexico border around the same time that Biden announces his reelection bid. So the administration’s strategy appears to stress that the military deployment is temporary (just 90 days, for now) and that it has been done in the past, including during the Obama administration. Then-president Obama sent nearly 1,500 military to the southern border, and they were there for nearly a year at one point.
Posted inEspañol
COMENTARIO: Con el fin de la emergencia de COVID las vacunas costarán dinero
2 de mayo de 2023 En vísperas de la cancelación oficial de la emergencia nacional de salud pública por la pandemia del coronavirus, la administración Biden se enfoca en garantizar que la comunidad latina y otras poblaciones desatendidas no se queden atrás y sigan gozando del mismo acceso a vacunas y otros servicios. Como se […]
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: The COVID emergency ending means vaccines will cost money
One key provision that is disappearing is the continuous enrollment of Medicaid, which means that up to 14 million low-income persons could lose Medicaid coverage. States can apply for waivers, while others, as Secretary Becerra mentioned, are working with the federal government and community groups to make sure no one gets left out.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: Tributes to Trailblazer Gloria Molina
Molina was the first Latina elected to the California State Assembly and served there from 1983-1987, and then became the first Latina elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1987, followed by being the first Latina elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1991. She served on the powerful and influential county board for 23 years, retiring in 2014 due to term limits, capping 32 years in public service in the state’s largest city and the second-most populous in the country.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: Federal agencies haven’t met contract goals for Latino businesses
Last year, President Biden signed an executive order directing every federal agency and department to set 15 percent as a targeting goal for contracting and doing business with Latino- and Latina-owned businesses. There are five million Latina- and Latino-owned businesses in the country, contributing more than $800 billion to the economy annually.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: U.S. Senators introduce DACA bill
The Dream Act of 2023 is just the latest alliteration and has been introduced in the last three sessions of Congress, but similar versions have been introduced – and at one point even passed the U.S. House of Representatives only to never see the light of day in the upper chamber. And while some legislators might say the ninth time’s a charm, others aren’t so convinced, in part because even supporters of granting permanent legal status to DREAMers and others seeking a path to U.S. citizenship complain that legislators constantly use DREAMers in particular as a pawn for greater security measures along the U.S.-Mexico border.