The economic power of the Latino population in the United States is as massive as it is misunderstood.
Latinos contribute more than $3.7 trillion annually to the economy, more than the gross domestic product of all but four countries in the world.
Latinos are the nation's largest minority group with 64 million people. The vast majority, eight out of 10, are U.S. citizens.
By 2030, one out of every three people entering the workforce will be Latino.
But acknowledgement of those facts is lacking, studies show, especially among policymakers and politicians.
The vacuum leaves space for false narratives to flourish.
One example for the leader of the nation's largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization is the Trump administration's inaccurate labeling of Latinos as criminals and outsiders who don't contribute to the nation.
"If we're going to have an economy that really moves the country forward and sustains all of us, it has to include the Latino community from a demographics perspective," Janet Murguía said.
Murguía, a native of Kansas City, Kansas, is president and CEO of UnidosUS, which is holding its annual conference Aug. 4-7 in Kansas City.
The conference opens days after nearly a dozen people were taken from their jobs at two Kansas El Toro Loco Mexican Bar and Grill locations in morning raids by Homeland Security Investigations, a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The detentions of the employees were filmed and witnessed by community members and sparked a protest later in the day.
Videos show the employees as they were being taken from the restaurants in handcuffs and with chains around their waists. Food was left cooking at the Lenexa location and a handwritten note that said "Closed" was taped to the front door, which was left unlocked.
Murguía is critical of some tactics that Homeland Security is using in its efforts to meet the administration's goal of removing 3,000 undocumented immigrants daily.
Increasingly, she said, what's happening is unlawful and unconstitutional.
"This is not about immigration," Murguía said. "It's about civil rights."
Negative narratives about Latinos that are unsubstantiated by data are being used to justify the actions, including some actions that shred due process, she said.
UnidosUS is the umbrella organization for more than 300 affiliates spread across virtually every state. Three are in the Kansas City area: El Centro, the Guadalupe Centers and Mattie Rhodes Center.
The nearly 60-year-old organization's current strategy is three-pronged — to protect, defend and advance the Latino community.
Murguía served in former President Bill Clinton's administration and also once served as an executive vice chancellor at the University of Kansas.
She said abuse of power and government overreach in immigration enforcement must be challenged.
"We intend to do everything we can to provide the advocacy to push back against this and demand accountability in the courts and through the administration and in Congress," Murguia said.
Partnerships with other civil rights organizations will be key, she said, noting deep connections with the leadership of the National Urban League, the National Action Network and the Legal Defense Fund.
"This is about our civil rights being destroyed," she said. "Partners and allies can be really critically important in communicating that to the broader public and understanding that we're all threatened in this country when actions happen."
'There is no American agenda without a Latino agenda'
UnidosUS is linking with some of the leading researchers in the nation.
Documenting the social and economic impact of mass deportation will be crucial.
Some immigrant families are of mixed status, with at least one family member who might be undocumented and others who are not.
Approximately 6.6 million American citizens, including 5.5 million U.S. children — over 8% of all children in the U.S. — live in a household with at least one undocumented family member.
A 2017 study predicted that removing one family member from every mixed-status household through deportation would drop the median income of those households by nearly 50%.
The report was written with data compiled by the Center for Migration Studies of New York and published by the Journal on Migration and Human Security.
"Removing undocumented residents from mixed-status households would reduce median household income from $41,300 to $22,000, a drop of $19,300, or 47%, which would plunge millions of US families into poverty," the report noted.
The ramifications on homeownership, businesses and taxes paid could be dramatic.
If the U.S. removed all of its undocumented residents, "gross domestic product (GDP) would be reduced by 1.4% in the first year, and cumulative GDP would be reduced by $4.7 trillion over 10 years," the report said.
Updated data will be key to track not only the outcomes of current immigration policy, but also the Trump administration's recently approved budget bill. UnidosUS called it "a stunning betrayal to working families, vulnerable communities and the American electorate who entrusted them with their votes" due to its cuts to health programs and food assistance.
Studies can also inform a wide range of initiatives that have long been the focus of UnidosUS: homeownership, educational attainment, health, voting rights and political empowerment.
Data to support policy, based on understanding Latino history
UnidosUS has partnered with the Latino Politics & Policy Institute at the University of California Los Angeles.
The institute's motto is "there is no American agenda without a Latino agenda," a statement that underscores the relevance of Latinos historically, by population, economic output and future projections as a young demographic.
Latinos are contributing nearly $4 trillion annually to the economy, said Rodrigo Domínguez-Villegas, director of research at the UCLA institute.
Yet Latinos hold only 12% of the nation's household wealth while comprising nearly 20% of the population, he said.
"There's a disconnect that reveals a system where Latino labor and entrepreneurship are fueling economic growth in the country, but the wealth that's generated through Latino labor and entrepreneurship is held elsewhere," he said.
Domínguez-Villegas is leading a project to find out why.
In a partnership with UnidosUS, the institute is completing an analysis of how public policy has shaped Latino wealth.
The economic mobility study will be released in October.
"We are telling the story of Latino communities across the country and what Latinos contribute, and also how Latinos struggle because of systemic and historical disadvantages," he said.
Mattie Rhodes, one of the Kansas City-based UnidosUS affiliates, will release the Hispanic/Latino Equity Index for the Kansas City area's Latino population during the convention.
The report was developed with the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Center for Economic Information and the Urban League of Greater Kansas City.
It will highlight disparities in economic opportunity, health, education, social justice and civic engagement.
Similar local reports can be aided by another initiative at the UCLA institute, the Latino Data Hub.
It's an interactive platform to analyze conditions affecting Latinos nationwide, drawing from the 2023 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census.
An updated hub was released in mid-July. And tutorials on how to use the hub are ongoing.
"We have tried to build it in a way that is as intuitive as possible," said Domínguez-Villegas, who will be attending the UnidosUs conference. "Our target audiences are, of course, policymakers, but also community-based organizations and the media."
Information can be broken down nationally, by state or county, and soon by congressional districts.
Built into the platform are 130 indicators, with filters for people to search for detailed information such as homeownership, health care access and educational attainment. The information can be searched in English or Spanish.
The Latino Data Hub grew out of the COVID pandemic, when Latino communities were disproportionately impacted in terms of hospitalizations and deaths.
Policymakers were surprised and slow to react, said Domínguez-Villegas, because they hadn't understood Latino health disparities and access to health care that predated the pandemic.
"Policymakers were like, 'Oh, we didn't have this data, so we didn't understand really, how to incorporate that into the response,'" Domínguez-Villegas said.
Researchers, he said, vowed "never again."
Strong data can help tell the stories of Latinos and build understanding of past struggles that have led to current inequities, while also addressing the demographic's contributions. The goal is a more nuanced telling of the nation's extremely diverse Latino communities.
Sharing the American dream
Previous work between UnidosUS and the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy found deep gaps in the inclusion of Latinos in U.S. history curriculum.
The lack of accurate information undercuts awareness.
The buying power of the Hispanic market can be shown in telling stories of entrepreneurship and those who find prosperity by catering to the demographic, in all of its vast diversity.
A prime local example is the success of the El Mercado Fresco supermarkets, which began catering primarily to the Latino immigrant communities in northeast Kansas City about a decade ago.
The company's ninth store opened July 17 in a former Big Lots at 7533 State Ave. in Kansas City, Kansas.
Hundreds of people, many of them Latino, gathered in the parking lot for the ribbon cutting and then formed a long line, patiently waiting to file into the store to shop as a mariachi band serenaded.
Carlos Gomez, president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City, helped with the honors.
Gomez said the El Mercado groceries are successful, in part, because of the owner's respectful relationship with the Latino community, giving back philanthropically and through hiring.
The owner, Eddie Musallet, said he sources products through a wide range of vendors to cater to the culinary preferences of many ethnicities, including Asian and African people.
Musallet said he's conscientious of people's budgets and tries to use local farmers for some products.
Packages of 30 eggs, locally sourced, were marked $6.99 at the State Avenue opening.
Soon, a group of leaders gathered outside the store, chatting as friends found one another in the crowd.
David Carranza, economic development director for the city of Grandview, Missouri, said that Latinos know how to "make something from nothing," guided by entrepreneurial efforts and often working not only one, but two jobs.
"We're survivors," Carranza said.
Murguía echoed the sentiments of local leadership in her resolve to advocate and organize through current political and policy challenges.
Latinos, she said, are known for optimism and resilience, holding a deep belief in the promise of the nation and its ability to allow people to carve out their American dream.
"If you fundamentally believe that about this country, you're not going to give up, even in the most daunting times," Murguía said. "We're leaning into every bit of resilience and optimism in this moment."
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