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Topics will include trade, deregulation, immigration, health care and tax reform
The USHCC endorsed Hillary Clinton during last year's election
Hispanic business leaders will be at the White House for meetings Thursday, with topics ranging from trade, to immigration, to health care, to women’s issues.
US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Javier Palomarez will lead the Hispanic business leaders for meetings at the White House, as the organization holds its annual legislative summit and also conducts outreach on Capitol Hill.
There will be meetings with senior administration officials in two groups – one focused specifically on women and Latina business leaders, and the other with a wider group of major Hispanic businesses.
Topics will include trade, deregulation, immigration, health care and tax reform, according to a representative of the organization.
The White House confirmed the meeting is taking place.
Although the group endorsed Hillary Clinton during last year’s election, Palomarez has since become part of Trump’s National Diversity Coalition and has worked with the White House on trying to engage Hispanic business leaders.
The meetings are part of Palomarez’s stated philosophy of “campaigning from the inside, not complaining from the outside,” and to “explore opportunities to unite and not exploit opportunities to divide.”
The engagement will happen amid a host of hot-button issues consuming Washington, including the White House’s continued efforts with Republican leadership in Congress to pass a bill repealing Obamacare that faces opposition from conservatives in both chambers.
The meetings also happen as Trump’s hardline enforcement of immigration laws have caused concern and fear in much of the Hispanic community.
Palomarez says that in an earlier meeting with Trump he expressed the importance of preserving the Obama administration Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gives work permits and protection to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children.