Latino-led protest tells NBC to 'dump Trump' as SNL host
A Latino-led protest Saturday night against NBC for picking Donald Trump to host "Saturday Night Live" raged in front of the network's Rockefeller Center studios as the show welcomed the billionaire and GOP presidential hopeful.
"Dump Trump! Basta Trump!" more than 100 people chanted in English and Spanish, filing into police pens outside NBC, following a march from Trump's namesake headquarters about eight blocks north.
"When immigrants are under attack, what do we do? Fight back!" they yelled.
"Immigrants are not a punchline!"
"How do you spell racist? S-N-L!"
The protesters object to Trump's remarks on immigration -- particularly that murderers and rapists constitute many of the Mexicans coming to the United States.
Trump, a real estate developer and reality TV star, has been at or near the front of the pack of candidates vying to be the Republican nominee for president. He's proposed deporting all immigrants who are illegally in the country and building a wall between the United States and Mexico.
Meri Diaz, 38, a college professor from Washington Heights, was at the demonstration with her daughter Eloise Ruszczyk, 2, and husband, Stephen, a fellow academic.
Diaz said Trump has been "extremely disrespectful" to hardworking Latinos.
"I've been a longtime fan of 'SNL' and I think today is the moment I stopped being a fan," she said.
About 10 counter-demonstrators met the "Marcha to Stop the Hate" anti-Trump group, separated by 49th Street, midtown traffic and dozens of NYPD cops.
"Donald Trump is hosting SNL," one of the signs said. "Get over it!"
Among Trump's fans was Jill Mika, an elementary school teacher from Kings Park. She wore a Trump signature red "Make America Great Again" hat and said she planned to watch the show later with her family.
"They lost," Mika, holding a "Build the Wall . . . Trump 2016" sign, said of the opponents across the street. "He's doing SNL, so I don't know why they're here . . . Trump is funny. I want to laugh."
A spokeswoman for the coalition behind the protest, Paloma Zuleta, said Saturday afternoon that "it was wrong of NBC to give Trump the honor to serve as host."
"Racism should not be part of mainstream comedy," she said.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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