Hispanic eco devo group expands its services to Johnson County

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a presentation from Rob Paral, a researcher who suggests Mexican immigrants are coming to the Midwest is such large numbers that shunning or criminalizing workers from the other side of the southern border is both unrealistic and self-defeating.

In his definition of “Midwest,” Paral didn’t include Kansas. But Johnson County is very much part of this picture.

Bernardo Ramirez, executive director of Kansas City’s Hispanic Economic Development Corporation, was at Paral’s presentation, too. He says the rising number of immigrants on the Kansas side of the metro is dramatic. In fact, it’s so significant that HEDC recently opened an office in Overland Park to serve the growing crop of Hispanic entrepreneurs.