Trump's policies and anti-immigrant violence disturbed these Latinos. Now they're taking action
LOS ANGELES - Adrian Rios was closing in on his dream job as a U.S. diplomat when the unexpected happened: Donald Trump entered the White House.
Throughout his campaign, Trump had labeled migrants from Mexico as rapists, criminals and drug traffickers. That rhetoric set the stage for Trump's first months in office, as he took measures to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration, much of it flowing from Mexico and Central America.
"I couldn't represent the country under his administration," Rios said.
Instead, the 26-year-old Mexican American readjusted his plans: attend law school at UCLA, practice corporate law to pull his family out of poverty and provide free legal services to disadvantaged Latinos.
In the U.S., Latinos make up about 18% of the population but only 4% of its lawyers, according to the Hispanic National Bar Association. Rios believes that not all Latino lawyers practice civil rights and immigration law full time and it's one of the reasons why he felt it was
