US has long history of bias against Latinos

Some 68 percent of Latinos in the United States have fallen victim to discrimination, the rate was 30 percent in 2003, according to a recent study published in online journal Social Science & Medicine. The study used data from the National Latino Health Care Survey, which surveyed 800 Latino adults in 2013 by phone. The rate of discriminatory acts against Latinos is similar to the percentage of African Americans who reported discrimination.

Stephen Lendman, author and journalist from Chicago, told Press TV’s Top 5 that the United States has a long history of discriminatory policies against Latinos.

The issue of discrimination against Latinos “is an American issue that’s been going on for very long time,” Lendman said on Wednesday.

“Latinos have always been subject to discrimination in America. This goes back many many years,” he said.

Pointing to the deportation of Latinos during the administration of outgoing President Barack Obama, Lendman said, “The media in the West, especially American, never reports the fact that Obama has deported more undocumented immigrants mainly from Latin and Central America than all his predecessors combined. He got a nickname calling him deporter-in-chief.”

Lendman said after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, several incidents of harassment and discrimination against Muslim Americans have been reported and the Muslims were “viciously persecuted” by the administration of former US President George W. Bush.

US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in January, has vowed to deport many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States and promised to build a wall on the border with Mexico.