‘People Are Scared’: How Trump’s Immigration Policies Are Affecting Latin Music

At last month’s Billboard Women in Music ceremony in Los Angeles, Breakthrough honoree Ángela Aguilar took a moment to express her solidarity with the Latin immigrant community, dedicating her award to women who cross the border to the United States “with nothing but hope in their hearts, only to find themselves living in uncertainty and fear,” she said in a poignant speech that prompted a standing ovation. “You deserve safety, dignity, the right to dream.”  

Aguilar is part of a growing group of Latin artists — including Shakira, Maná and Alejandro Fernández — who are using their platforms to speak up for immigrants after President Donald Trump took office in January and immediately launched an aggressive crackdown on immigration, pledging to carry out mass deportations.  

But it was perhaps regional Mexican artist Tony Aguirre who addressed the situation more bluntly. “I’m scared that no one will show up to my shows,” he said during an interview with a Mexican podcaster when asked how things were going with Trump as president. Aguirre tells Billboard he is genuinely worried.  

“Regional Mexican events have been directly impacted, and it’s not just me going through this, many of my colleagues feel this way,” says Aguirre, who tours mainly in the U.S. “When it all started, we were reaching out to each other just to see how things were going and everyone was saying the same thing, low attendance. People are scared to go out because of mass deportation threats, and I wanted to speak up because it seems like no one in our industry is willing to really to talk publicly about how this has impacted our industry, and it’s important that we do.”  

While the effects of Trump’s policies on Latin music still remain to be seen on a larger scale, there is a real concern about the impact.  

Abel DeLuna, California-based member of the veteran Mexican music association Promotores Unidos and founder of Luna Management, is once again dealing with a situation that’s historically effected regional Mexican bailes, which are small but mighty shows (and for many years the backbone of the genre) predominantly held in nightclubs catering to a specific demographic and booked by indie promoters. In 2007, Billboard’s Leila Cobo interviewed DeLuna about “stepped up” immigration enforcement under the George W. Bush administration, where he said then that the immigration situation alone accounted for 20% to 25% of the drop in his concert promotion business. He relived the same scenario 18 years later when Trump took office for a second term earlier this year, with that fourth week of January and first week of February being particularly brutal. DeLuna says shows in those weeks sold only around 10% to 15% of tickets, which ultimately led him to cancel some shows in Northern California. 

“Our people are worried,” says DeLuna, speaking over the phone just weeks after Trump took office. “Many are afraid to go out, afraid to go out to work, afraid to go to the bailes, concerts, several having to get canceled because people are not buying tickets. I don’t know how long this is going to last, if it is really going to calm down soon or if it is going to go on for a long time and if it does, then our people are going to suffer a lot and the whole business is going to suffer.” 

Low concert attendance aligns with a decrease in foot traffic in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods around the country since Trump took office, says Maria Teresa Kumar, president of Voto Latino, a non-profit organization that aims to encourage young Hispanic and Latino voters to register to vote.  

“People are scared that they’re going to be targeted and rounded up, creating a chilling effect happening around a community that is getting internalized mentally but also physically in their decisions to not go shopping or go to concerts,” says Kumar, who in the past has teamed up with artists like Maná and Los Tigres del Norte to get Latinos more politically involved.  

The Latin music industry thrives on a diverse fan base, and while it’s reaching a global audience now more than ever, its core listeners are still Latinos, and a significant portion of them are immigrants. Just as with previous administrations, when there are increased reports of immigration raids in U.S. cities, businesses inevitably suffer. That includes everything from flower shops and restaurants in Chicago seeing a notable decline in sales to schools and churches feeling the “chilling effect,” as The New York Times put it in a report about “immigrants in hiding” over fear of deportation. 

DeLuna says the sobering topic came up at the annual conference for Promotores Unidos, a long-standing Latin concert promotion association with more than 300 members, in Las Vegas in January.

“[Immigration] is the most important conversation right now,” DeLuna says categorically. “With those I have talked to among the association, I recommend the same thing: We must take care of ourselves, but we have to work harder and try to do better promotion to get people to come to our events, even if that means keeping prices low. What I’m personally doing is lowering prices to see if people feel encouraged to come out.”

Enrique Ortiz of Luz Record, a management, promotion and booking agency based out of L.A., also attended the Promotores Unidos conference in Las Vegas and says that while misinformation on social media about alleged raids in certain cities has also affected concert attendance, he’s been following the situation closely. “We’ve been noticing that ICE is arresting those with a criminal record, yes, but also those who don’t [have one]. And that’s concerning. It has a direct impact on all of us as managers, promoters, musicians.”  

Billboard’s reporting confirms that this is an ongoing topic of conversation in important Latin music spaces and is top of people’s minds — although many in the industry prefer not to speak on the record about it. Over the course of two months, Billboard reached out to more than a dozen industry leaders, from managers to agents to promoters, for this story, with the majority declining to give an interview about just how much the Trump administration could impact the business of Latin music. Some who agreed to speak on background on the condition of anonymity expressed the same sentiment: uncertainty. One source, a manager to a well-known regional Mexican act, said they had already seen the impact on live shows in certain markets, particularly concerts that mainly book more traditional (i.e. older) regional Mexican acts.

Josh Norek, president of Regalias Digitales, refuses to stay silent and blasted a wide email to his contacts in March with the subject line: “Latin music industry — the time to speak is now.”  

“From venues and record labels to artists and crews, deportations create instability that threatens the economic power of Latin music,” Norek’s email reads, with messaging crafted by Voto Latino for artists and executives to share. “If our audiences and communities are at risk, our industry suffers.” 

Norek is particularly focused on the impact Trump’s administration will have on royalties should his promise of mass deportations come to fruition. “I project in the next four years we’ll see a significant decrease in earnings,” he tells Billboard. “I care tremendously on a humanitarian standpoint, but when you think about the economic impact, it’s very simple math: A stream coming from Mexico is worth about 2% of a stream coming from the U.S. So, if you deport 5 million streamers and put them in places like Mexico, Guatemala or Venezuela, you go from paying $10 a month for Spotify to [the] free ad-supported tier in Mexico, and it will generate almost nothing. Meanwhile, Pandora exists only in the U.S. and if you take away those users, it will impact SoundExchange royalties. You shouldn’t have to be a Democrat, Republican or independent to be thinking about the economic impact of deportations.”  

Adding to the precariousness of it all, Trump’s global tariffs, announced on April 2, could also affect the U.S. music industry, from musical instrument manufacturers to the vinyl business. They could also lead to a potential decrease in local tourism, directly impacting concert and festival attendance in the U.S.  

“During these times [of uncertainty], people are double-thinking how to spend their expendable income and, sadly, concerts are one of those pieces that are disposable income,” adds Kumar. “It’s been only two months and we’re already seeing the implications in the music industry, in hospitality, retail industry — this is not tenable.” 

Norek reached out to Voto Latino to help craft messages for industry leaders and artists to share, although the shareable posts have yet to garner wider traction. “I understand that it’s tough for some people to speak out because they don’t want to be demonized,” says Norek. “However, now there’s just outward hostility toward Latinos and immigrants. The least we can do is show our clients that we care. This is our audience.”