The Senate today finally voted to end the debate on Mari Carmen Aponte’s nomination as ambassador to El Salvador. As previously reported on La Plaza, Aponte’s nomination has been awaiting confirmation since December 2011, when a Republican filibuster blocked the Senate’s ability to move forward to a vote. She has been serving as a recess […]
Urgent Action Needed: Mari Carmen Aponte’s Nomination Still Awaiting Confirmation
June 12, 2012 By
Democrats are expected to bring a vote to the Senate floor as early as Wednesday on the nomination of Mari Carmen Aponte as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, and Senator Marco Rubio is feeling the pressure from leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to follow through on his pledge to rally Republican votes to finally […]
Taxpaying Immigrant Families Are Safe For Now
February 21, 2012 By
Lawmakers in Washington announced on Thursday last week an agreement to extend the payroll tax cut, without excluding immigrant children from benefiting from the Child Tax Credit. As La Plaza’s recent call to action reported, some congressional members were trying to require all tax filers who claim the Additional Child Tax Credit to file with […]
Guest Blogger Series: Janet Murgia “Survey Affirms AT&T as Industry Leader on the Issue of Diversity”
January 13, 2012 By
The news last month was dominated by AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. The proposed merger generated considerable debate within the civil rights and progressive communities, with some organizations, including many labor unions, strongly in favor and others, principally consumer advocates, deeply opposed. While NCLR did not take a position on the issue, in the aftermath […]
Guest Blogger Series: Gus K. West “Guarding Latino Voting Rights – Rally for Fair Texas Re-Districting”
January 6, 2012 By
Across the country states have been addressing their re-districting needs in recent months, redrawing voting maps that will fairly reflect new Census statistics from the 2010 Census. The latest figures showed that the population in Texas grew by 4 million people, giving the state 4 new congressional seats. The plan drafted by the three-judge panel […]
Countrywide Agrees to Pay $335M in Landmark Case over Discriminatory Lending Practices Against Latinos
December 23, 2011 By
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 […]
Latino Medical School Enrollment Rising
December 20, 2011 By
An exciting report this week notes that Latinos are increasingly applying to and attending medical schools in the U.S. and in significant numbers. Since 2004 applications by Latino students to U.S. medical schools increased almost 23%, representing a 6% rise from 2010 to 2011, the Association of American Medical Colleges reported. The numerical figure was from […]
Arpaio Kicked Out of Federal Immigration Enforcement Program
December 16, 2011 By
The findings by the U.S. Justice Department that Sheriff Joe Arpaio violated the civil rights of Latinos in his pursuit of undocumented immigrants have led to the expulsion of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office from a federal immigration enforcement program. The program, part of the Department of Homeland Security, allows trained deputies to enforce immigration […]
Supreme Court Decision to Weigh In on Texas Redistricting Battle Will Impact Latino Voters
December 13, 2011 By
The Supreme Court’s decision late last week to halt the recently announced Texas election maps proposed by a three-judge panel in San Antonio is raising concerns over the impact it could have on the rights of Latino voters in the state. The action is the most recent in the redistricting battle in Texas that started […]
U.S.-Mexico Border Arrests Drop to Lowest Level in Decades
December 13, 2011 By
The number of undocumented immigrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in the past fiscal year dropped to the lowest it’s been since the 1970s. According to statistics from the Department of Homeland Security released in late November, the total number of apprehensions, 327,577, is 53.5% lower than it was in 2008. The peak was in 2000, when 1.6 million […]
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