Video

Donald J. Trump has appeared unconcerned with the possibility of angering Latinos since declaring during the announcement of his presidential campaign in June that Mexico was sending rapists to the United States.

On Wednesday evening, in an event organized by the League of United Latin American Citizens, about two dozen protesters gathered behind metal barricades opposite NBC headquarters at Rockefeller Center in New York to demand that the network rescind an invitation that Mr. Trump had accepted to host “Saturday Night Live” this week.

There were claps and chants of “Dump Trump” and “Fight back.” There were placards reading “S.N.L. stop the hate.” There were people dressed in costume, including a man appearing as a cartoon-style plutocrat, replete with a black top hat and a papier-mâché mask featuring eyeballs emblazoned with dollar signs.

Among the protesters was Juan Sanchez, 45, a translator from Midtown Manhattan, who said that he believed that Mr. Trump, racial views aside, might be driven by ego.

“It’s all ‘I do, I do, me, me, me, myself, myself,’ ” Mr. Sanchez said, shaking his head. “I don’t think America deserves that kind of leadership.”

Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, declined to comment on Wednesday evening about the protest.

Xiomara Santos, 20, said she had come to New York to join the demonstration from Washington, where she is an intern with the League of United Latin American Citizens. Mr. Trump seemed most interested in spreading negativity, she said, and it would therefore be a bad idea for NBC to provide him with yet another platform.

Asked who she supported for president, Ms. Santos said quickly that she was a fan of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, adding, “He seems more truthful than all the other candidates.

Does that mean that Mr. Trump was being less than truthful when he made his inflammatory statements?

If Mr. Trump believed what he said, “he is a racist,” Ms. Santos said. “If it’s a publicity stunt, he’s just destructive.”

Nearby, Nicola DeMarco 57, from Riverdale, in the Bronx, held aloft an illustration he had drawn of Mr. Trump with his lips pursed as if whistling and featuring his trademark haircut.

“I don’t want to see people rounded up and deported,” Mr. DeMarco said, referring to a proposal of Mr. Trump. “What he’s proposing is right out of the Nazi playbook; these are Mussolini tactics, to rile up people.”

Around 6:30 p.m. several protesters walked slowly across West 49th Street holding a cardboard box that they said contained a flash drive bearing 522,080 signatures to a petition demanding that NBC revoke Mr. Trump’s invitation.

The chants stopped briefly as Juan Escalante, a member of an immigration reform group called America’s Voice, was permitted to enter the Rockefeller Center lobby to deliver the cardboard box to “someone named Adam.”

Then, as he emerged from the lobby, the chants resumed.