Danilo Burgos: Advocacy through the PA Legislative Latino Caucus

Danilo Burgos is the current state representative for Pennsylvania’s 197 legislative district which covers North Philadelphia just east of Broad Street from Fairhill to Feltonville.

This constituency has had difficulties with representation in recent years. Former representative Leslie Acosta, who defeated Burgos in 2014, pleaded guilty in 2016 to conspiracy to commit money laundering for her role in embezzling money from a non-profit organization.

Burgos would run for the seat again in 2018 against Emilio Vasquez, who won the seat in a 2017 special election but this time the challenger came out victorious.

He became the first Dominican-American elected to PA state government and he has used this position to uplift the voices of Latinos in his district and across the commonwealth.

PA State Rep. Burgos (on the left) joining Make the Road PA and protesting for rights for undocumented people. Photo courtesy of WHYY.

I met the representative for the first time in November 2021 when I was working with Make the Road PA, an immigrant rights non-profit. We, along with other elected officials and activist groups, demonstrated on Market Street in Center City Philadelphia to demand for federal action on delivering a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people living in America’s shadows.

Before this, he chaired the Biden for President PA Latino Leadership Council, and in this current legislative session, he started the Pennsylvania Legislative Latino Caucus, now serving as the first chairman of the caucus.

We recently caught up and I wanted to ask Rep. Burgos more about his motives for entering public, the caucus he started, and his hopes for it in the future.

He saw the political chaos unraveling in his community and he knew that he could do better. He had been serving the 197th district for many years. His parents moved to Philadelphia and operated a bodega (Dominican grocery store). Burgos opened a store of his own in 1998 and helped other Latino entrepreneurs by co-founding the Dominican Grocers Association of Philadelphia. The local advocacy drew him closer to governmental circles and would later hold director positions in Councilmember Allan Domb and Maria Quiñones-Sanchez’s offices.

After putting a large coalition and group of volunteers together for his 2018 run, he received the Democratic party’s support and was soon on his way to Harrisburg.

“When I got to the Capitol, I started working on priorities. One of my main priorities was working to change the law so nurses from Puerto Rico could work in Philadelphia. So I went to work and I found out that the assembly was going to do a bill on reciprocity for professional licenses only for military families. And I started to speak with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle, at the time that Republicans were in control of the House agenda, and in conversation with Republicans and the governor's office, was able to come to an agreement and came up with House Bill 1172. We came up with a new law that allows professionals from over 20 different professions, nurses being one of them, to transfer their licenses and be able to work in Pennsylvania.”

House Bill 1172 was signed by Governor Tom Wolf in 2019 and is now known as Act 41 and the Department of State for the Commonwealth processes applications for Americans outside of Pennsylvania looking to be licensed.

When Rep. Burgos came to office he was only one of two Hispanic members of the state assembly and now there are six from three different counties. This increase in political representation led to the idea of the caucus.

Q: What prompted you to start the PA Legislative Latino Caucus and who supported you at first?

“I spoke with our representative Manny Guzman from Berks County and we reorganized the need for this group. We created the Latino caucus with the help of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators,” he said. “The Latino population in our state single-handedly stopped the bleeding of the population in 2020. When the census was done, we were supposed to lose two congressional seats, we only ended up losing one as a state. And that was due to the growth of the Latino community across Pennsylvania.”

He went on to add that he has maintained great communication with the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators and Rep. Burgos was able to bring their annual summit to Philadelphia this year. Taking place between November 30 and December 3, they were able to get Comcast NBCUniversal to host the event.

Q: What are the main policy goals that you are advocating for in the state capital?

“We're advocating for driver's licenses for undocumented people. We're advocating for the removal of the requirements to be a US citizen in order to be a certified teacher in Pennsylvania. We're fighting for dreamers that have gone to high school here in Pennsylvania and want to go to one of our state colleges, to ensure that they can pay at an in-state rate and not be forced to pay more just because of their status.”

Pennsylvania is behind the curve on these policy issues and the split control of the state’s legislative assembly is part of the blame. Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia offer driver’s licenses to undocumented residents.

Q: Is helping other Latinos get elected to public office part of the group's goals?

“Our primary goal is to highlight the contributions of the Latino community all over the state. Whether it be in the political arena, in the private sector, or in academia.”