The latest news relating to the political world as it impacts the US Latino community.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week involving the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Section 5 of the Act is being challenged by Shelby County, Alabama, saying that the provision was necessary in 1695 when there was voter suppression to African Americans, but that discrimination is “non-existent today.” Supporters of the protection of the Voting [...]
Texas statewide redistricting plans were overturned Tuesday by federal district court judges in Washington D.C., providing credence to the charge that the plans discriminates against Latino voters. The state was seeking preclearance under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. This section requires lawmakers to get approval from the federal government before enacting laws based on the state’s [...]
In an effort to ensure the wide dissemination of information to protect and promote Latino and immigrant communities’ and individuals’ fundamental rights to nondiscrimination in health care and social service programs, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is hosting a webinar series throughout the month of August. [...]
Alabama’s show-me-your-papers law, HB56, threatens to turn the clock back to a time when hardworking men and women were persecuted because of the color of their skin. The law legitimizes racial profiling, terrorizes people of color throughout the state, frightens children, and harms the state’s economy. Sound familiar? Alabama’s past — post emancipation years characterized [...]
Four East Haven, Connecticut police officers accused of systematically targeting Latinos with unlawful search and seizures, traffic stops, and physical abuse were arrested on Tuesday. The FBI has accused Police Sergeant John Miller, Officers David Cari, Jason Zullo, and Dennis Spaulding, known within the East Haven Police Department as “The Miller Boys,” of intimidating both [...]
In the largest residential fair-lending settlement in history, Bank of America’s Countrywide Financial Corporation has agreed to pay $335 million to settle a dispute over allegations of systemic discrimination against qualified Latino and African-American borrowers. Latinos made up about two-thirds of the cases investigated by the Department of Justice, which reviewed over 200,000 cases across 41 [...]
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona and Sheriff Joe Arpaio routinely discriminated against Latinos, including racial profiling during routine traffic stops and treating legal residents as criminals, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday. The findings are part of a 3 ½-year investigation that began in 2008 after numerous complaints alleged sheriff’s deputies were [...]
A pair of anti-immigration laws in the town of Hazelton, Penn., declared unconstitutional by a federal appeals court last year, are getting a second chance. The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed its ruling from last September that declared the laws unconstitutional because they conflicted with federal immigration laws. The court’s decision stems from [...]
Movement on the anti-immigrant front has pretty much stalled. The fervor that was ignited by Arizona’s controversial SB1070 has, in the words of the Associated Press, fizzled. This doesn’t mean that we can put the whole ugly anti-immigrant mess behind us and move on, but it does look like the momentum has slowed and the final lines have been drawn. What [...]
A lawyer representing Hispanic farmers alleging discrimination by the United States Department of Agriculture over a number of years called the $1.3 billion settlement offered by the government on Friday “unacceptable.” The group of farmers, which also includes women farmers, claims the USDA favored white farmers for years by giving them preference for loans and [...]
