2/9/06 Kan



Ricky Hurtado

Media Report

Draft

March 23, 2020

Part I Introduction

This report reviews electronically available news stories on Ricky Hurtado, candidate for the NC House.

The Table of Contents in Part II of the report is a useful guide to the entire report and can be used as a stand-alone summary. In one section, it surveys the bulk of the news file, through the headlines we have assigned to each item.

Part III, the Greatest Hits section, identifies key points taken from available media articles.

Parts IV, The News File, contain edited copies of the most relevant electronically available stories.

We hope you find this useful.

Part II Table of Contents

Part I Introduction 2

Part II Table of Contents 2

Part III Hurtado - Greatest Hits from Media Review 3

Background 3

Championing DACA and Immigration Issues 3

Running for State House 6

Guest Column Explaining Run Lean on Specifics 6

Critical of Bloomberg Presidential Candidacy 7

Part IV Hurtado – The News File, 2007-20 8

2007 8

MAR 2007 Will Attend UNC 8

2016 8

OCT 2016 Participates in Town Hall 8

2017 9

NOV 2017 Organizes Conference 9

NOV 2017 On DACA Panel 10

NOV 2017 Makes Forbes 30 Under 30 Education List 12

2018 14

OCT 2018 “Forward Promise” Award Winner 14

2019 15

FEB 2019 Criticizes ICE Raid 15

JUL 2019 Potential Primary Opponent Withdraws 16

NOV 2019 Liberal Blog Profile 16

NOV 2019 Questions Bloomberg Candidacy 17

DEC 2019 Overview 17

DEC 2019 Guest Column on Running 17

2020 19

JAN 2020 Adjunct Instructor 19

FEB 2020 ZOOM Entry 19

Part III Hurtado - Greatest Hits from Media Review

Background

• “Ricky Hurtado is an adjunct instructor at UNC-Chapel Hill and co-founder and co-director of LatinxEd, an organization to help first-generation college students and immigrant families.” (Burlington Times-News, 12/3/19

• So little is available about Hurtado that when he became the unchallenged candidate for the Democratic nomination in District 63, even the liberal blog Watauga Watch referred to him as a “blank slate”. (Watauga Watch, 11/4/19)

• He attended Lee County High School and went to UNC on a prestigious scholarship. (Sanford Herald, 3/13/07)

• By 2016, he was executive director of the “Scholar’s Latino Initiative” (SLI) and appearing at a number of forums on issues for the Latino community.

• He is married to “Yazmin” and this apparently is Yazmin Rico who in 2017 was a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill and appeared with Hurtado at an SLI forum where they “gave a presentation about their experiences as immigrants trying to get into college.” (UWire, Guilford College, 11/17/17)

• Yazmin Rico is also a

Championing DACA and Immigration Issues

• In 2017, in his role with SLI, he chaired a forum championing DACA and those who would be impacted by its repeal.

• Ricky Hurtado, the executive director of the N.C. Scholars’ Latino Initiative at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Center for Global Initiatives, led the panel. A Sanford native and graduated of Lee County High School, Hurtado said he wanted the panel to open peoples’ eyes to the human face of DACA.

• ”This is an incredibly critical conversation to have in every community, not just here in Sanford, but across North Carolina and across the nation,” he said. “Many of you may have been discussing DACA as media talking points or even as a political football. What we wanted to do today was to humanize the issue.” Hurtado said there might be more similar panels in the future to raise awareness of the issue. But for now, they’re waiting on what Congress does. (Sanford Herald, 11/25/17)

His work with SLI won him recognition on Forbes 30 Under 30 Education List.

• For Hurtado, the award served as a reminder of the importance of their work. "It's a validation that this work is really important and that other folks should be paying more attention to thinking about equity in education," Hurtado said.

• NCSLI is dedicated to creating civic, educational and professional opportunities for Latinx children in North Carolina. NCSLI runs high school programs in counties across the state and holds monthly educational events at the FedEx Global Center.

• While NCSLI was founded in 2003, Hurtado and Townsend Utin's work has helped to expand and redefine the organization. NCSLI board member Paul Cuadros had high praise for Townsend Utin and Hurtado's work.

• "I think they've taken NCSLI to a whole new level. So originally the program was focused just on mentoring and college preparation," Cuadros said. "Rickey and Elaine have taken NCSLI to have a broader vision in terms of not only mentoring and preparing those students for higher education but also instilling them an idea of becoming future leaders within their community."

• Both Townsend Utin and Hurtado went to UNC for their undergraduate years, both were involved in NCSLI while at the University, and both are Latinx first-generation college students. The hurdles and experiences they faced while growing up are ones they hope NCSLI will help guide future generations of Latinx students through. Townsend Utin talked about she felt to be the complexities and importance of holding a Latinx identity in the American South today.

• "Being Latinx in the South is a very unique experience, and I think we are defining it right now in this time and space, and the generations after us are continuing to kind of break down what does that mean and being in the context of living in North Carolina," Townsend Utin said. "So if we can continue creating spaces where we can have dialogue around that we can really be pushing the barriers that exist for our community and challenge them by creating new leadership."

• NCSLI also puts Latinx youth and families into contact with services such as immigration lawyers if necessary. While Hurtado acknowledged the heated political climate surrounding America's immigrants and Latinx populations, he asserted that NCSLI would continue its work.

• "At the end of the day, a lot of what we're doing is advocating and fighting for our children and families across North Carolina regardless what the political climate is like," Hurtado said. "Our families are here to stay, and they're gonna keep on striving for higher education and we're gonna support them regardless of what other people are trying to do." (Daily Tar Heel, 11/29/17)

Following a local ICE raid in his community, he said this.

• Ricky Hurtado, a Lee County High School graduate, serves as co-executive director of LatinxEd, an organization assisting Latino students in North Carolina public schools. Hurtado said he's spoken to students since the raid and learned of the incident's impact.

• "Last week's immigration raid led to not only fears for loved ones, trauma from families being broken apart, but also bullying from other students targeting their discriminatory rhetoric at Latino students," he said.

• Hurtado laid out several ways the school board and school district could support the Latino community and students affected by similar situations. This included communicating a message conveying Latino and immigrant students are welcomed in Lee County Schools. "We need more crisis counselors responding to this issue," he said. "We also need training for teachers, counselors and all school leadership on how to effectively deal with immigration matters in their schools." (Sanford Herald, 2/13/19)

Yazmin Rico, whom he later married wrote a 2017 guest column in the Raleigh News-Observer urging President Trump to keep the DACA program.

• This week, 800,000 young people who came to the United States as children are waiting in fear and anticipation to find out whether President Trump will force them back into the shadows or worse, deport them, by revoking the policy that grants them legal status in the only home many have ever known.

• Since 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) has provided a brighter future to nearly 50,000 young people in North Carolina – including me – by allowing us to obtain work permits, educations and the recognition that we are valued members of our communities. Despite the program’s widespread success and popularity, it has been reported that President Trump is considering ending the policy that protects “Dreamers” from deportation and has created so many opportunities for us to contribute to our local economies and communities.

• I came to the United States from Mexico when I was 13 years old. I attended public schools in Alamance County, and I graduated high school with honors. But I faced many challenges along the way because I was undocumented. For many years I could not obtain a driver’s license or learner’s permit, for example, even though I took the required classes and passed my final test.

• I studied hard, got good grades and was fortunate enough to earn scholarships that allowed me to attend college. But the stress of being undocumented did not allow me to be a regular college student; I lived in constant fear of being deported. I couldn’t secure internships in my area of study because I did not have state-issued identification. I could not fly because I was afraid of being detained by immigration agents at airports. So when I had to attend a conference in Florida, I took a 12-hour train ride.

• Despite the challenges and the uncertainty, I earned my bachelor’s degree in 2011. But after graduation, the cruel reality of being undocumented still prevented me from working at a job I love and contributing to the economy and the community that I care about.

• That all changed in 2012 when President Obama issued the executive order that allowed me to obtain DACA status. Since then, many doors and opportunities have been opened for me in every aspect of my life. I’ve been able to use my education and experience to work in the nonprofit sector on issues that I’m passionate about, such as the rights of students and farmworkers.

• Now that I have a government-issued ID, I’ve been able to obtain a library card, request utilities for my apartment, open a bank account, build my credit, buy a car and obtain health insurance for the first time. I now also have peace of mind because I can fly and drive without fear of deportation. Most important, DACA has allowed me to keep dreaming about my future, invest in my community and even pursue a graduate degree.

• I desperately hope that President Trump and his administration rethink the future of DACA and realize how much economic, social and emotional harm would be caused if the program was ended. Thanks to DACA, people like me have been able to start businesses, buy homes and earn higher wages – all contributing to the economy and generating tax revenue for cities, states and the country at large. Revoking DACA would mean that hundreds of thousands of young people would lose their ability to drive, to work, to continue living in the country where they grew up and that they know as home. We are active and productive members of American society – we should not be forced back into the shadows.

• Yazmin Garcia Rico is a master’s degree candidate in social work at UNC Chapel Hill and a policy intern for the ACLU of North Carolina. (RNO, 8/31/17)

Running for State House

Guest Column Explaining Run Lean on Specifics

A guest column on his candidacy in December 2019 is remarkably free of specifics on many issues other than throwaway references to Democratic talking points on health care, gerrymandering and education.

• I have filed to become your next North Carolina House representative in Alamance County (District 63). I am launching this campaign because I love North Carolina. It has been home for over 25 years. But I know we can do better. We deserve elected officials who will build a North Carolina that works for all of us a North Carolina for the many, not just the few.

• My parents, working-class immigrants from El Salvador, stressed to me that if I worked hard I would have an opportunity to succeed and own a piece of the American Dream. That mentality led to my becoming a Morehead-Cain Scholar at UNC and a graduate from Princeton University. I now teach at a university and lead an initiative to help first-generation college students from working-class families go to college.

• However, I have realized that success like mine is more often the exception rather than the rule. In reality, too many people in Alamance County are working hard and getting less because of the decisions of our elected officials. In the last decade, we have seen a decline in investment in public education, a refusal to expand access to affordable healthcare, a worsening of family economic insecurity, and a rise in poverty for working-class communities and communities of color. To top it off, partisan gridlock and gerrymandering have all but paralyzed our policy-making process to solve any of these issues.

• That's because politicians in Raleigh aren't looking out for us. It is time for new leadership that can bring our diverse community together to promote a forward-looking vision that addresses the systemic challenges of our education, healthcare, and workforce systems to build a stronger North Carolina.

• I believe we can build a better future where race, gender, sexual orientation, or ZIP code does not determine your life outcomes but we have to build that future together, as a community. I look forward to getting to know you as we head into a pivotal election that will decide the direction of the next decade. To learn more and get in contact with me, please visit Ricky Hurtado of Mebane is a Democratic candidate for North Carolina House District 63. (Burlington Times-News, 12/8/19)

Critical of Bloomberg Presidential Candidacy

The only notable national issue he was quoted on was Michael Bloomberg’s entry into the Presidential race.

• “I’m not sure what his logic is exactly,” Ricky Hurtado, who attended a Hispanic voters forum in North Carolina that featured Ms. Warren, said of Mr. Bloomberg. Ticking through a number of the leading Democrats in the race, Mr. Hurtado, who is running for the state legislature next year, said, “I think we have enough voices in the primary right now covering the majority of the spectrum in the Democratic Party.” (NY Times, 11/4/19)

Part IV Hurtado – The News File, 2007-20

2007

MAR 2007 Will Attend UNC

Focus, work ethic pay off. Lee County High student chooses UNC after accepting Morehead Cain Foundation award. Herald Staff Writer SANFORD - Lee County High School senior Ricky Hurtado joked with friends Sunday that he would make his decision on which college to attend next year based on who won the ACC Championship Sunday. He has that luxury, having received both N.C. State University and the University of North Carolina's most prestigious scholarships within the last month. Hurtado was named Thursday as one of only 70 high school seniors to receive the Morehead-Cain (Sanford Herald, 3/13/07)

2016

OCT 2016 Participates in Town Hall

Raleigh: The Town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina has issued the following news release:

Come join leaders in our community as they discuss race and policing in light of recent events in this town hall style panel discussion. The panel will be moderated by Joel Brown, weekend anchor of WTVD, from 7 to 9 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 24 at Chapel Hill Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. Panelist include:

Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue

Carrboro Police Chief Walter Horton

Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood

Carrboro Alderman Michelle Johnson

Chapel Hill Attorney Tye Hunter

Community member Terrence Foushee

Director of Empowerment Inc. Delores Bailey

Executive Director of the Scholars Latino Initiative Ricky Hurtado

UNC Law Student Quisha Mallette (Press Release, 10/8/16)

2017

NOV 2017 Organizes Conference

The 11th annual Soy un L[­der conference was held on Saturday, Nov. 11, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Guilford College. The event helped the international community, specifically high school students and their parents, learn about the college application process.

The Soy un L[­der conference was started in 2007 and is held annually at Guilford. It caters to the different needs of students by having unique workshops and speakers for high school underclassmen, upperclassmen and their families. This allows attendees to get information about higher education that is specific to their age.

Soy un L[­der had many different speakers who gave students and parents advice for pursuing higher education.

“Try not to stress,” said East Carolina University representative Benjamin Blue. “We were all seniors in high school before. We don’t expect students to be perfect. I was not a perfect student in high school. If you have questions, ask.”

The conference was also encouraging for students, many of whom will be first or second generation college students.

“We want you to have the resources necessary to make your dreams come true,” said Irving Zavaleta Jimenez ’08, Soy un L[­der co-founder, assistant director for multicultural education and Latino community coordinator.

N.C. Sli is a program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that provides educational, professional and civic engagement opportunities for the Latin community in the state. During a workshop for students, N.C. Sli Executive Director Ricky Hurtado and UNC-Chapel Hill graduate student Yazmin Garcia Rico gave a presentation about their experiences as immigrants trying to get into college. They connected with students and offered personal advice.

“You are the expert of your own experience,” said Rico. “Nobody else can tell you what you are going through. You have to push through and show them what you can do.”

Soy un L[­der also gave student volunteers from Guilford a chance to learn leadership and guidance skills at the conference.

“I wanted to see how to prepare high school students for college,” said H’lois Mlo, a senior and accounting major. “I wanted to see what workshops they put on for the students and the whole process of preparing the students for college.”

During Soy un L[­der, students attended a college fair and learned about different scholarships and opportunities that would make college more financially accessible to them.

“I would like to tell them to apply to where they want to go,” said YWCA USA, Inc. representative Jessica Contreras. “Don’t let (their) financial situation or status affect their decision.”

The college fair, along with the various workshops at Soy un L[­der, gave students a chance to ask questions about the college application process, something that they often do not get to do in their schools.

“It’s a good opportunity to know more about colleges,” said high school student Miriam Herrera. “I first heard about it from a friend who helped out with Soy un L[­der, so he told me about it, and I signed up.”

Soy un L[­der prepared students and parents to face the challenge of applying to college and allowed them to have a better understanding of what attending higher education would mean for their families.

“We must be brave to be who we are,,” said keynote speaker Nayely P[©rez-Huerta, co-director of the Southeast Immigrant Rights Network. “We must be brave to be who we want to be.” (UWire, Guilford College, 11/17/17)

NOV 2017 On DACA Panel

He was sitting at a table in the front of a room at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Sanford, flanked by fellow participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a program currently with an unclear history.

He said he came to Sanford from Mexico when he was six years old, one of three children of a single mother.

”I just left most of that family behind me,” he said. “I lived here about as American as anybody can get.”

Guerrero and three of his fellow “Dreamers” shared their stories Wednesday night at St. Stephen in an attempt to shed light on the dire situation DACA recipients face when the program expires.

DACA was a federal government program created by an executive order by former President Barack Obama in 2012. It allows children who were brought into the U.S. illegally as children to defer their deportation by two years. It gave them the opportunity to travel and leave the country, get a driver’s license and more if they passed a vetting process and paid a fee.

Recipients must have been younger than 31 years old on June 15, 2012, when it was announced, must prove they had been in the country for more than five years and maintain a clean criminal record. The deferments could be renewed every two years.

There were 787,580 “Dreamers,” the nickname for recipients of the program, when current President Donald Trump

announced he was rescinding the program earlier this year. According to Father Robert Ippolito, the pastor at St. Stephens who has been helping many in Sanford, there were around 300 in Lee County.

When Trump announced his plan, applications were no longer being taken. Immediately, the president faced pushback, including a lawsuit from several state Attorneys General. N.C. A.G. Josh Stein was one of them.

”Ending DACA isn’t just cruel to Dreamers, against our American values, and the wrong thing to do for our nation’s economy, it also violates our Constitution,” Stein said in a news release in September. “I will do everything in my power to restore DACA for the tens of thousands of young people in North Carolina who rely on it -- including fighting for them in court.”

North Carolina is home to approximately 27,000 DACA recipients -- the seventh largest state in the country for the program -- and there are approximately 800,000 nationwide. According to the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, DACA grantees pay $63,618,000 annually in state and local taxes in North Carolina.

One of the North Carolina’s U.S. Senators, Republican Thom Tillis, announced a piece of legislation with two Republican co-sponsors calling for new legislation called the SUCCEED Act, short for the Solution for Undocumented Children through Careers Employment Education and Defending our nation Act. According to a news release, the legislation would provide “a fair but rigorous track” for undocumented children to earn conditional permanent resident status. There would be three pathways: being employed, pursuing postsecondary or vocational education or serving in the military.

But the legislation hasn’t gained much traction, leaving people like Guerrero unsure about their future.

Another recipient at the event Wednesday was Itziri Gonzalez-Barcenas. She came to the U.S. from Mexico with her mother when she was six months old, following her father who had arrived six months earlier.

”With a future family, my father wanted to secure financial security,” Gonzalez-Barcenas said. Coming to the U.S. allowed him to have better opportunities for me and my future siblings.”

She graduated from Southern Lee High School and is currently a junior at Davidson College planning to pursue a degree in immigration law.

Lesley Delgado arrived in Sanford at three years old and is currently a student at Central Carolina Community College. She desires to transfer to Appalachian State University to be a history teacher. Delgado also works as an advocate for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

”I went to school with everybody else not feeling a difference ... until I was aware of deportation, having knowledge of that,” she said.

Ernesto Cervantes Trejo, the oldest panelist at 23, said he was on a break from his work as a supervisor at a nearby chicken plant. He came to America when he was four and aspires to be a lawyer. He spoke about what it was like to be the child of an illegal immigrant before DACA.

”There’s a lot that I’ve been through,” he said. “You don’t really realize it until your friends start taking the trips to Europe, and your mom’s like, ‘You can’t go, you ain’t got the papers. If you leave, you ain’t coming back.’ “

Ricky Hurtado, the executive director of the N.C. Scholars’ Latino Initiative at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Center for Global Initiatives, led the panel. A Sanford native and graduated of Lee County High School, Hurtado said he wanted the panel to open peoples’ eyes to the human face of DACA.

”This is an incredibly critical conversation to have in every community, not just here in Sanford, but across North Carolina and across the nation,” he said. “Many of you may have been discussing DACA as media talking points or even as a political football. What we wanted to do today was to humanize the issue.”

Hurtado said there might be more similar panels in the future to raise awareness of the issue. But for now, they’re waiting on what Congress does. Some proposals, like Tillis’, have been discussed, but nothing’s moving forward.

That leaves people like Guerrero in a lurch. He wanted to be in the military, but was unable to because of his immigration status. So he works at a manufacturing plant and takes care of his 2-year-old son.

”Ever since he came into my life, I have been working to provide every single little thing he needs,” Guerrero said. “One of my aspirations is to be the best father that he can have so that he does not have to struggle the same way his father did.” (Sanford Herald, 11/25/17)

NOV 2017 Makes Forbes 30 Under 30 Education List

Forbes is known for its lists — the Forbes 500, the Forbes list of the World's Most Powerful People and the Forbes 400. One can imagine the shock North Carolina Student Latinx Initiative's co-directors Ricky Hurtado and Elaine Townsend Utin experienced when they found out from friends on Facebook that their work had earned them a spot on one of Forbes famed list — Forbes 30 under 30 Education.

For Hurtado, the award served as a reminder of the importance of their work.

"It's a validation that this work is really important and that other folks should be paying more attention to thinking about equity in education," Hurtado said.

NCSLI is dedicated to creating civic, educational and professional opportunities for Latinx children in North Carolina. NCSLI runs high school programs in counties across the state and holds monthly educational events at the FedEx Global Center.

While NCSLI was founded in 2003, Hurtado and Townsend Utin's work has helped to expand and redefine the organization. NCSLI board member Paul Cuadros had high praise for Townsend Utin and Hurtado's work.

"I think they've taken NCSLI to a whole new level. So originally the program was focused just on mentoring and college preparation," Cuadros said. "Rickey and Elaine have taken NCSLI to have a broader vision in terms of not only mentoring and preparing those students for higher education but also instilling them an idea of becoming future leaders within their community."

Both Townsend Utin and Hurtado went to UNC for their undergraduate years, both were involved in NCSLI while at the University, and both are Latinx first-generation college students. The hurdles and experiences they faced while growing up are ones they hope NCSLI will help guide future generations of Latinx students through. Townsend Utin talked about she felt to be the complexities and importance of holding a Latinx identity in the American South today.

"Being Latinx in the South is a very unique experience, and I think we are defining it right now in this time and space, and the generations after us are continuing to kind of break down what does that mean and being in the context of living in North Carolina," Townsend Utin said. "So if we can continue creating spaces where we can have dialogue around that we can really be pushing the barriers that exist for our community and challenge them by creating new leadership."

NCSLI also puts Latinx youth and families into contact with services such as immigration lawyers if necessary. While Hurtado acknowledged the heated political climate surrounding America's immigrants and Latinx populations, he asserted that NCSLI would continue its work.

"At the end of the day, a lot of what we're doing is advocating and fighting for our children and families across North Carolina regardless what the political climate is like," Hurtado said. "Our families are here to stay, and they're gonna keep on striving for higher education and we're gonna support them regardless of what other people are trying to do."

While Hurtado and Townsend Utin have gone as far as Harvard and Princeton to further their abilities, Townsend Utin said she enjoys being able to give back to a state that she calls home.

"It's such an exciting opportunity for us to be back in North Carolina, back serving the communities that raised us, to really contribute to students that are following in our footsteps, but also paving their own paths," Townsend Utin said. (Daily Tar Heel, 11/29/17)

2018

OCT 2018 “Forward Promise” Award Winner

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has issued the following news release:

Forward Promise, a national program office of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation committed to empowering boys and young men of color, has announced Depelsha McGruder as a 2018 recipient of its Forward Promise Fellowship For Leaders.

Depelsha is the Founder and President of Moms of Black Boys United, Inc. and MOBB United for Social Change, Inc., two non-profit organizations that are dedicated to influencing policy and perception impacting how Black boys and men are treated by law enforcement and in society. Moms of Black Boys United is dedicated to changing negative perceptions and increasing awareness and understanding of the plight of Black boys and men in America. The organization creates an extended village and enables moms of Black boys to tell their stories, celebrate their accomplishments, and connect them to resources and opportunities that enrich their lives. M.O.B.B. United for Social Change is an advocacy organization that is a nationwide coalition of moms of Black sons focused on influencing policies that impact the lives of Black boys and men.

The Fellowship brings together an intergenerational cohort of both emerging and experienced leaders who have a vision for the healing of boys and young men of color and their communities. Each distinguished Fellow will be awarded $10,000, and will participate in an 18-month leadership development learning experience that includes retreats, peer learning strategy sessions, and skill-building webinars.

”The health of a community depends on leaders bold enough to ask tough questions, build coalitions, and take action on behalf of marginalized people,” said Dr. Howard Stevenson, Director of Forward Promise. “I’m delighted that we have identified 20 visionaries across generations who are changing the way health services are provided to boys and young men of color in this country.”

The Forward Promise Fellowship aligns with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Culture of Health as it recognizes the accomplished work of a cohort of 20 leaders across the country that helps boys and young men of color have the access and opportunity to live a healthier life. The Fellowship provides opportunities for Fellows to build relationships and a community of support as they advance health strategies for boys and young men of color; to share and be exposed to emerging and best practices to support young men in their communities to heal, grow and thrive; and to elevate the lessons of transformational healing work from the work of all the Fellows.

”We are excited to uplift the culturally responsive healing work of each of this year’s Fellows and build upon the Foundation’s philosophy of leadership,” said Maisha Simmons, senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “We hope The Forward Promise Fellowship forLeaders will nurture and empower new, bold voices dedicated to the health and well-being of boys and young men of color.”

The following Fellows have been selected and awarded:

Ricky Hurtado , Co-Executive Director of LatinxEd in Chapel Hill, NC (Press Release, 10/4/18)

2019

FEB 2019 Criticizes ICE Raid

Jose Morales woke Feb. 5 to a phone call from his father, the UNC Greensboro sophomore said during public comments at Tuesday's Lee County Board of Education meeting.

Morales was told ICE raided his mother's workplace at Bear Creek Arsenal and she had been detained. The Southern Lee High School graduate said his main concern that morning had been a class presentation, but his focus quickly changed.

"Reality hit me 15 minutes later when my mom stopped responding to us," he said Tuesday. "I missed my presentation, but in less than an hour, I was driving back to Sanford. My family had no idea where my mom was. We spent the next two days searching for her, calling jails across North Carolina."

Morales' mother was picked up when federal agents raided Bear Creek Arsenal after discovering several employees were using false social security numbers. More than two dozen workers, identified as illegal immigrants, were arrested.

Morales, who said he was disappointed in the school board's failure to address the raid, was one of several members of the Latino community who spoke at the school board meeting. Half a dozen students and activists urged the board to support Latino students, particularly in light of the raid.

Southern Lee High School junior Hugo Morales, Jose's younger brother, explained how the incident affected him. He said he couldn't comprehend what happened to his mother.

"It caused me to be in a state of constant worry and distraught, which has affected my schooling," he said.

Ricky Hurtado, a Lee County High School graduate, serves as co-executive director of LatinxEd, an organization assisting Latino students in North Carolina public schools. Hurtado said he's spoken to students since the raid and learned of the incident's impact.

"Last week's immigration raid led to not only fears for loved ones, trauma from families being broken apart, but also bullying from other students targeting their discriminatory rhetoric at Latino students," he said.

Hurtado laid out several ways the school board and school district could support the Latino community and students affected by similar situations. This included communicating a message conveying Latino and immigrant students are welcomed in Lee County Schools.

"We need more crisis counselors responding to this issue," he said. "We also need training for teachers, counselors and all school leadership on how to effectively deal with immigration matters in their schools."

Once public comments were complete, board chair Patrick Kelly read a statement on behalf of the board and the school system.

"We are aware and understand concerns in our community about the possibility of actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at our schools," he said. "Lee County Schools is committed to ensuring safety and a quality education to all of our students and we have the supports available for any student or families in crisis."

Kelly reassured those in attendance that the school was not an ICE target.

"We are not aware of any ICE enforcement action taking place on a school campus anywhere in North Carolina, and we've not received any communication or requests from ICE." (Sanford Herald, 2/13/19)

JUL 2019 Potential Primary Opponent Withdraws

Recently wrote here about Erica McAdoo, running again in 2020 in House District 63. She

announced yesterday that she’s withdrawing from the race and endorsing Ricky Hurtado instead.

Hurtado is the son of Hispanic immigrants , the product of North Carolina public schools, and a first-generation college graduate. “He serves on the steering committee for Alamance Achieves, an innovative education initiative in Alamance County; is Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for NC Child, a statewide child advocacy organization; is a Commissioner for MyFutureNC, a commission to advance college attainment and workforce development across North Carolina; and is a member of the Board of Directors of the United Way of North Carolina.” (Watauga Watch, 7/19/19)

NOV 2019 Liberal Blog Profile

I was very keen on Erica McAdoo’s running again in 2020 in NC House District 63, because as a first-time candidate in 2018, Erica came within 300 votes of beating a strong Republican incumbent. But McAdoo dropped out of the 2020 race on July 18.

Ricky Hurtado, the son of Hispanic immigrants, has stepped forward to take McAdoo’s place, and he did so with the backing of NC House members Ashton Clemmons, Graig Meyer, Zack Hawkins, and others.Numbers guru Michael Bitzer rates the remapped district as “Competitive Lean Republican.” The “competitive” part of that ranking likely arises from the district’s shedding of some 7.50% of its previous registered Republicans in the most recent remapping.

is a good deal more sanguine about the prospects; they list this district as their number one most flippable seat in the NC House for 2020.Can the son of working-class immigrant parents, even a man with an inspiring story and a big personality like Ricky Hurtado, do as well as Erica McAdoo did in 2018, and do even better, which is what it will take to overcome first-time-candidate status as well as some baked-in cultural resistance in Alamance County?

Hurtado has an appealing video posted on Twitter in which both he and his wife Yazmin talk straight to the camera about themselves as Burlington natives who went on to distinguish themselves via higher education and productive, community-oriented careers. Don’t understand why but so far that video hasn’t appeared on Hurtado’s Facebook page nor on his website

Perhaps he’ll add policy positions going forward, but so far Hurtado’s website is devoid of any issue advocacy. He’s a blank slate, and as much as I want to believe that his outstanding eleemosynary involvement in his community makes him the candidate for my values, I’d still like to see a few things spelled out. (Watauga Watch, 11/4/19)

NOV 2019 Questions Bloomberg Candidacy

Yet if there is consensus around the high priority of finding the strongest candidate to take on Mr. Trump, there is less agreement among rank-and-file voters that the party needs a white knight to enter the race and rescue them. Interviews with Democrats across four states on Friday showed that many were content to pick from those who remained in the sprawling field.

“I’m not sure what his logic is exactly,” Ricky Hurtado, who attended a Hispanic voters forum in North Carolina that featured Ms. Warren, said of Mr. Bloomberg. Ticking through a number of the leading Democrats in the race, Mr. Hurtado, who is running for the state legislature next year, said, “I think we have enough voices in the primary right now covering the majority of the spectrum in the Democratic Party.” (NY Times, 11/4/19)

DEC 2019 Overview

--N.C. State House District 63:

Incumbent Republican Stephen Ross has a Democratic challenger this year for the seat he has held since 2012. Democrat Ricky Hurtado is an adjunct instructor at UNC-Chapel Hill and co-founder and co-director of LatinxEd, an organization to help first-generation college students and immigrant families. (Burlington Times-News, 12/3/19)

DEC 2019 Guest Column on Running

I have filed to become your next North Carolina House representative in Alamance County (District 63). I am launching this campaign because I love North Carolina. It has been home for over 25 years. But I know we can do better. We deserve elected officials who will build a North Carolina that works for all of us a North Carolina for the many, not just the few.

My parents, working-class immigrants from El Salvador, stressed to me that if I worked hard I would have an opportunity to succeed and own a piece of the American Dream. That mentality led to my becoming a Morehead-Cain Scholar at UNC and a graduate from Princeton University. I now teach at a university and lead an initiative to help first-generation college students from working-class families go to college.

However, I have realized that success like mine is more often the exception rather than the rule. In reality, too many people in Alamance County are working hard and getting less because of the decisions of our elected officials. In the last decade, we have seen a decline in investment in public education, a refusal to expand access to affordable healthcare, a worsening of family economic insecurity, and a rise in poverty for working-class communities and communities of color. To top it off, partisan gridlock and gerrymandering have all but paralyzed our policy-making process to solve any of these issues.

That's because politicians in Raleigh aren't looking out for us. It is time for new leadership that can bring our diverse community together to promote a forward-looking vision that addresses the systemic challenges of our education, healthcare, and workforce systems to build a stronger North Carolina.

I believe we can build a better future where race, gender, sexual orientation, or ZIP code does not determine your life outcomes but we have to build that future together, as a community. I look forward to getting to know you as we head into a pivotal election that will decide the direction of the next decade. To learn more and get in contact with me, please visit

Ricky Hurtado of Mebane is a Democratic candidate for North Carolina House District 63. (Burlington Times-News, 12/8/19)

2020

JAN 2020 Adjunct Instructor

Democrat Opportunities

Democrats came within 882 votes of defeating Rep. Ted Davis in New Hanover County. Davis is retiring and both major parties face primaries. Once piece of good news for the GOP, unlike in 2018, Republicans will not have a Libertarian candidate to contend with on the ballot in this race in 2020.

N.C. State House District 63: Incumbent Republican Stephen Ross won in 2018 by a razor thin margin of less than 300 votes in this Alamance County district. His Democratic challenger for the seat he has held since 2012 is Ricky Hurtado, an adjunct instructor at UNC-Chapel Hill and co-founder and co-director of LatinxEd, an organization to help first-generation college students and immigrant families. (Foundation For Equal Opportuning Research, 1/12/20)

FEB 2020 ZOOM Entry

Personal Information

********** PERSONAL INFORMATION **********

TELEPHONE: (919) 935-3483

E-MAIL: rhurtado@unc.edu

Other Information: Male

Career Information

********** CAREER INFORMATION **********

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:

02/11/2019 to 02/11/2019

Executive Director, Scholars' Latino Initiative,

University of North Carolina

11/29/2016 to 11/29/2016

Board Member,

Southern Documentary Fund (Past)

08/29/2016 to 08/30/2016

Executive Director, Latino Initiative,

NC Scholar's (Past)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Published on: 11/29/2016

Board - Southern Documentary Fund

Ricky Hurtado , SDF Board Treasurer, is the Executive Director of the Scholars' Latino Initiative (SLI). In this capacity, he works toward expanding equitable access to higher education for Latino students across North Carolina.In general, his work focuses on advancing social and economic equity by applying a critical understanding of race, place, class, and gender.Throughout his personal and professional experiences, Ricky has worked to find the intersection of immigrant rights and racial justice issues in an effort to unite communities and mobilize support for programs and policies advancing equity. Ricky earned his BS with Honors in Business Administration as a Morehead-Cain Scholar at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a Master's in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. He is a proud resident of Durham and is always looking for ways to lift up the untold stories of the emerging Latino community, in the city and throughout the South.

Latest News - Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, Inc.

Congratulations to our Hermana Elaine Townsend Utin on receiving her joint recognition with Ricky Hurtado from Forbes 30 U...

Hermana Elaine Townsend Utin Receives Forbes 30 Under 30 - Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, Inc.

Congratulations to our Hermana Elaine Townsend Utin on receiving her joint recognition with Ricky Hurtado from Forbes 30 Under 30. The duo was acknowledged for their work as Co-Executive Directors of NC Scholars' Latinx Initiative.

North Carolina Group Keeps Dreamers' College Goals Alive - Juvenile Justice Information ExchangeJuvenile Justice Information Exchange

But now NC Sli's Executive Director Ricky Hurtado , 29, is worried those numbers could plummet. "We give a promise that if they [students and families] follow our curriculum and engage in academics like we tell them to, this will ultimately work out," Hurtado said. "2017 has definitely been the most difficult part of my professional and personal life," said Ricky Hurtado , co-executive director of the North Carolina Scholars' Latino Initiative. "We try to make a promise to our students that if they follow our curriculum and engage with their academics ... that things are ultimately going to work out, and this year we haven't been able to say that."

Started in rural North Carolina, NC Sli , which is based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Global Initiatives , provides Latino immigrants with financial, emotional and social support to expand educational access and equity.

"It was created around a issue of a new emerging population in North Carolina popping up in all corners of the state, especially in rural parts, given the demand in terms of jobs and who was filling those jobs," Hurtado said.The Hispanic population rose by 394 percent between 1990 and 2010, according to UNC's School of Education ."Many were realizing the barriers their immigration status had for them as they were graduating from high school and seeking to continue on into college," he said.

Today North Carolina's Hispanic population continues to rise.It is home to 890,000 Hispanics, which is 9.2 percent of its state population - and roughly 1.6 percent of the country's population, according to the United State Census.North Carolina has the 11th highest population of Hispanics in the country.

Although Hurtado was born in the United States, his upbringing is similar to that of many of the students served. His parents were born in Honduras and fled to the United States in the 1980s to escape its violence.They eventually settled in rural Sanford, where his father found a job as a driver in waste management and his mother worked at a poultry plant.

Today the program is in 11 high schools across four counties.High school sophomores are matched for three years with college mentors who are students at UNC-Chapel Hill.

"Eighty percent of Latinos growing up [in North Carolina] will be the first in their household to go to college," Hurtado said. But Hurtado said that NC Sli found workarounds for these restrictive policies - they identified Dreamers like Rodas early, so they had more time to alter their college strategies and focus on private institutions. Hurtado said he is already seeing potential going to waste as high school students decide to alter their plans to pursue higher education.

"Eliminating DACA would eliminate the 'hope factor' that keeps our students fighting for their education and work prospects every day," Hurtado said. Hurtado said Sli would be forced to explore expanding advocacy efforts for a legal defense fund, to give them the capacity to offer greater services.They'd have to advocate more on the policy level to continue supporting their students.

In addition, he said, Sli would have to refocus more within their network to raise money for scholarships Although DACA recipients don't get in-state tuition or federal financial aid, they still have more benefits when applying for scholarships than students without a protected status, so fundraising would become even more important.

"There are differences in eligibility for certain private scholarships, and undocumented students can't benefit from certain policies at the community college [level] that DACA students can for tuition breaks," Hurtado said.

Published on: 08/29/2016

INVICTUS WORKS THE BLOG

Ricky Hurtado , Executive Director, NC Scholar's Latino Initiative (Chapel Hill)

Telephone: (919) 935-3483 (Zoom, 2/20)

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