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Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

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Tuesday, October 20, 2015

‘Dump Trump’ movement grows to cancel ‘Saturday Night Live’ appearance

Washington Times
By Stephen Dinan
October 19, 2015

NBC’s decision to invite Donald Trump to host “Saturday Night Live” next month has sparked a fierce backlash, but it also shows the rising clout of the Republican front-runner, who has become the most dominant presidential candidate in decades.

The show’s invitation — a major about-face for NBC, which just three month ago bragged that it had broken all ties with Mr. Trump — has spawned a “Dump Trump” movement and is shaping up as a test of Hispanic leaders, who believe they have growing clout because of the size of their community.

It’s left NBC in the crossfire — a spokeswoman declined to comment this weekend — and has once again put Mr. Trump in the fore of the campaign, where he’s been ever since he announced his campaign with a speech denouncing illegal immigrants from Mexico as rapists and vowing to secure the borders and force illegal immigrants to leave.

America’s Voice, a leading immigrant rights group, has documented what it says is an increase in antipathy toward Hispanics in the wake of Mr. Trump’s pronouncements and said by having him on their network, NBC is giving a platform to “hate.”

“On November 7, it won’t just be Donald Trump on the SNL stage. He will be standing with all of his supporters who want to purge America of Latinos and immigrants and aren’t afraid to use any means necessary,” the group said in a memo. “Racism is not funny, and NBC should not try to bill it as either comedy [or] entertainment. NBC and SNL are rewarding Trump — and mainstreaming the hate that powers his campaign. That’s dangerous for immigrants and for the country.”

The National Council of La Raza and the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda have both denounced NBC’s decision, and MoveOn.org, a liberal pressure group with strong online organizing roots, has started a petition drive with America’s Voice to register a protest against NBC’s decision.

In early July NBC appeared to feel differently about Mr. Trump, citing his comments about immigration as a reason they were severing all business ties with him, including nixing his Miss USA pageant and vowing his “Apprentice” program was permanently done.

But Mr. Trump has proved to be a ratings bonanza for anyone willing to give him airtime, including the first two GOP presidential debates, which set records as the most-watched primary debates in history.

That lure appears to have triumphed over NBC’s previous coldness — an about-face that drew scorn from Mr. Trump’s opponents.

“Now, just three months after cutting ties with Donald Trump, NBC is seeking to boost its ratings at the expense of Latinos and immigrants by allowing Trump to host one of its most popular shows,” said Juan Escalanta, a campaign coordinator for MoveOn.org.

Mr. Trump’s campaign declined to comment on the protest, and said questions about NBC’s change of heart were better directed to the network itself.

For his part, Mr. Trump usually dismisses questions about his rhetoric by saying he polls well with Hispanic Republicans.

Hispanics are increasingly highlighting people and institutions they feel are anti-immigrant and, therefore, anti-Latino. For example, the state of Arizona saw a boycott after it passed a get-tough law to give local authorities power to enforce immigration laws.

But Hispanics are still looking for a major victory they can point to as evidence of their clout, and the NBC-Trump fight could be that chance.


The invite to Mr. Trump could cause other problems for the network. Variety, a show business publication, speculated that Mr. Trump’s appearance could trigger the equal time rule, a federal stricture that requires stations that give free airtime to one candidate to give the same opportunity to rivals.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com

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