08/19/2026
We are not backing down.
After decades of living, working, building families, paying taxes, and contributing to this country, Latino immigrants have every right to say: We belong here.
Look around you. Who is cleaning homes, offices, hotels, and businesses? Who is working in the fields growing and harvesting the food that ends up on your table? Who is working in meat and food-processing plants? Who is cooking in restaurant kitchens, washing dishes, delivering food, landscaping yards, maintaining buildings, working construction, and doing countless other jobs that keep this country moving?
Millions of Latino immigrants have been doing this work every single day.
And during COVID-19, when much of the country was told to stay home, millions of immigrant workers continued showing up. They worked in farms, grocery stores, restaurants, warehouses, hospitals, cleaning services, transportation, and other essential industries. While others were safely inside, many immigrants were putting themselves and their families at risk so that the rest of the country could continue to have food, medicine, deliveries, and essential services.
That contribution should not be forgotten.
Latino immigrants are not taking this country for granted. We have helped build it. We have worked in its fields, kitchens, factories, homes, businesses, and neighborhoods. We have raised families here, created businesses here, paid taxes here, and contributed billions of dollars to the American economy.
So when people talk about immigrants as if we contribute nothing, look around.
Look at who is harvesting the food.
Look at who is preparing your meals.
Look at who is cleaning your homes and businesses.
Look at who is maintaining your neighborhoods.
Look at who is delivering your food and packages.
Look at who kept working when the country shut down.
These workers are not invisible. They are part of America.
We are not asking anyone to be grateful simply because we are Latino. We are asking people to recognize the dignity of our work and the humanity of our families.
After 28 years of contributing to this country, we are not going to erase our existence or pretend that our contributions don’t matter.
We will continue to work.
We will continue to build.
We will continue to raise our families.
And we will continue to stand up for our communities.
We are not backing down. We belong here, and our contributions to this country cannot be erased
