Posts Tagged ‘ACLU’
ACLU Delegation in Puerto Rico Finds Serious Violations of Civil Rights
11:35 am By Maegan La Mala · Politics|Puerto Rico · Comments Off
5 May 2011Earlier this week a delegation from the American Civil Liberties Union, which included interestingly enough, actress Rosie Perez and baseball player Carlos Delgado, as well as the head of the ACLU, Anthony Romero, Angelo Falcon of the National Institute for Latino Policy, and Juan Cartegena of LatinoJustice PRLDEF, concluded that the civil rights violations against students and labor activists by the government was worse than originally imagined.
From El Nuevo Dia :
“The necessity of maintaining the university open and assuring access to students cannot justify the excessive use of force we saw in the videos,” pointed out the director of the ACLU, Anthony Romero, who also recognized that students violated laws and damaged state property.
“When the government unleashes the power of the police on students who were meeting peacefully in a public place, that is anti-American, contrary to Puerto Rican values, unconstitutional, and against the law,” he said.
Lawsuit Challenging Utah “SB1070 Lite” Law
10:12 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Politics|utah · 2 Comments
4 May 2011The Utah anti-immigrant law passed in March that some praised for presenting a more middle of the road approach is facing it’s first legal challenge. Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Utah, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olsen filed a class action lawsuit charging that HB 497 authorizes police to demand “papers” demonstrating citizenship or immigration status during traffic stops, invites racial profiling of Latinos and others who appear “foreign” to an officer and interferes with federal law.
The lawsuit charges that the Utah law is unconstitutional in that it unlawfully interferes with federal power and authority over immigration matters in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution; authorizes and requires unreasonable seizures and arrests in violation of the Fourth Amendment; restricts the constitutional right to travel freely throughout the United States; violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by unlawfully discriminating against certain lawful immigrants as well as people in Utah without approved identify documents; and violates the Utah state constitutional guarantee of uniform operation of the laws.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah on behalf of civil rights, labor, social justice and business organizations, including Utah Coalition of La Raza, Service Employees International Union, Latin American Chamber of Commerce, Workers’ United Rocky Mountain Joint Board, Centro Civico Mexicano, Coalition of Utah Progressives, individually named plaintiffs who would be subject to harassment or arrest under the law and a class of similarly situated people.
“This law has been wildly misrepresented as a kinder, gentler version of Arizona’s discriminating law,” said Karen McCreary, Executive Director of the ACLU of Utah. “But the truth is, this ill-conceived law is just as harsh, turning Utah into a police state where everyone is required to carry their ‘papers’ to prove they are lawfully present.”
ACLU Asks US DOJ to Intervene in UPR Struggle
12:01 pm By Maegan La Mala · Education|Puerto Rico · 2 Comments
11 Mar 2011Today being World Solidarity Day with the students of the UPR (find an event near you aqui), it seems fitting to report on the American Civil Liberty Union request that the U.S. Department of Justice intervene.
Yesterday the ACLU sent a letter asking for intervention in serious human rights and civil liberties abuses reported to be occurring against the people of Puerto Rico at the hands of the territory’s government. The ACLU asked that DOJ conclude its ongoing investigation of allegations of serious incidents of police violence and the suppression of free expression – including numerous reports of violent attacks against peaceful protesters and racially motivated police abuse – and take action to end these egregious practices.
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez today: “You Will Not Silence Them and You Will Not Silence Me”
3:21 pm By BiancaLaureano · Politics|Puerto Rico|U.S. House of Representatives · 5 Comments
2 Mar 2011Today Congressman Luis Gutiérrez gave an interesting speech at the US House of Representatives citing the ACLU report on human rights violations during student and community protests regarding the University of Puerto Rico called “Human Rights Crisis in Puerto Rico: First Amendment Under Siege.” Much of what the report shares Mala provided VL readers with last week from a educational meeting she attended in NYC with the ACLU. I received an email from a listserve I’m on sharing this video via a story where he has provided the full transcript of his speech available here.
This is not the first speech Rep. Gutiérrez has given on the matter, and I have no doubt we will be hearing more disagreement/complaints about his speech today from Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi as we have in the past.
What I appreciated the most from his speech was his challenging the idea that he has no real interest in Puerto Rico because “‘Gutiérrez was not born in Puerto Rico. His kids weren’t born in Puerto Rico. Gutierrez doesn’t plan on being buried in Puerto Rico… So Gutierrez doesn’t have the right to speak about Puerto Rico…” Gutiérrez’s response was “Let me tell you something — if you see injustice anywhere, it is not only your right but your duty to speak out about it.”
This resonates with me because I was not born on the island either, yet I believe the island is the Mainland, NOT the United States. There are parts of me that know I’m displaced in the US and that going home right now is not the safest option for me, or people of my immediate family, or of my chosen family. This does not mean our work and activism ends because of where we reside. I’ll leave further commentary for later, but for now check out his speech below.
Lawsuit filed Against U.S. for Wrongfully Deporting U.S. Citizen
12:37 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Justice|North Carolina · 7 Comments
14 Oct 2010Yesterday the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and a number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E) officers over the wrongful deportation of 33 year old Mark Lytlle, a U.S. citizen of Puerto Rican background who has mental disabilities.
According to the complaint( PDF File), in the fall of 2008, Lyttle was detained by I.C.E. in North Carolina, identified as a Mexican national and subsequently deported to Mexico. Lyttle had no ties to Mexico and spoke no Spanish. For four months he lived on the streets and in the shelters and prisons of Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala.
From the ACLU :
Lyttle’s entanglement with immigration authorities began when he was about to be released from a North Carolina jail where he was serving a short sentence for inappropriately touching a worker’s backside in a halfway house that serves individuals with mental disorders. Despite having ample evidence that Lyttle was a U.S. citizen – including his social security number, the names of his parents, his sworn statements that he was born in the United States and criminal record checks – officials from the North Carolina Department of Correction referred him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as an undocumented immigrant whose country of birth was Mexico. Lyttle had never been to Mexico, shared no Mexican heritage, spoke no Spanish and did not claim to be from Mexico.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Jail
6:38 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Phoenix · 4 Comments
14 Oct 2010
Maricopa Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio (yup he’s still around) was trying to not fix the inhumane conditions inside the jails within his jurisdiction as ordered by a lower court’s ruling. The court ruled that jails in Maricopa County do not meet constitutional minimums when it comes to food quality and housing conditions for inmates on psychotropic drugs. Yesterday, The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s appeal of the 2008 U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake’s decision.
Now Arpaio must end severe overcrowding and ensure all detainees receive necessary medical and mental health care, be given uninterrupted access to all medications prescribed by correctional medical staff, be given access to exercise and to sinks, toilets, toilet paper and soap and be served food that meets or exceeds the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s dietary guidelines. Basically, the judge ordered that yes Sheriff Joe, the incarcerated are humans and need to be treated as such.
The ACLU proved at the 2008 trial that the sheriff routinely abused pre-trial detainees at Maricopa County Jail by feeding them moldy bread, rotten fruit and other contaminated food, housing them in cells so hot as to endanger their health, denying them care for serious medical and mental health needs and keeping them packed as tightly as sardines in holding cells for days at a time during intake.
Via / AZ Central and the ACLU
Image Via / SPLC
A Year After Closing, Hutto Immigrant Detention Center Still Revealing Horrors
2:02 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Texas|Women · Comments Off
22 Aug 2010
Readers please note that the post contains references to sexual assault. Take care of yourselves and each other for possible triggers.
It was almost exactly a year ago that the T. Don Hutto detention center in Texas stopped incarcerating immigrant families, and there are still horror stories being revealed. Most recently, the ACLU reported that last week a Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) employee at the T. Don Hutto immigration detention facility in Taylor, TX charged with sexually abusing numerous female immigration detainees.
Donald Charles Dunn, a resident supervisor at the Hutto facility, is accused of abusing the detainees as he was transporting them to the airport after they had been released on bond and has allegedly admitted to telling the women that he was going to “frisk” them before touching their breasts and genital areas for his gratification, according to Sheriff’s officials in Williamson County, TX. Dunn is charged with official oppression and unlawful restraint.
I have never heard of “official oppression” as a criminal charge and was struck by it’s use and the absence of the use of any criminal charges for “sexual assault”. So I did a little search. Apparently “Official Oppression” is a Texas only law and it involves a law enforcement officer using their powers inappropriately, including sexually.
Arizona not part of the Land of the Free This 4th of July Weekend
8:43 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration · 1 Comment
3 Jul 2010Travel warnings are thought of as reserved for tourists and “American” diplomats traveling through “third world” countries dealing with coups and other political unrest. Certainly they are not thought of for states within the United States, and certainly not on the Fourth of July weekend, this is the land of the free after all. Unless of course we are talking about Arizona.
Some affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union have issued travel alert of sorts, aimed at warning Latinos and other people of color communities as to their rights when stopped by law enforcement.
“ACLU affiliates across the country are issuing these alerts because it is imperative that individuals understand their rights before traveling in Arizona,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “Under Arizona’s racial profiling law, people who look ‘foreign’ are more likely to be stopped for minor infractions and then asked for their ‘papers’ if police believe, based on their appearance or accent, that they could be in the country unlawfully. We hope the alerts provide people with some measure of protection from illegal harassment from law enforcement and inform them of their rights should they encounter it.”
ACLU and Others File Lawsuits against SB1070 and for Day Laborers
9:31 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · arizona|Immigration|Justice|New York · 4 Comments
19 May 2010The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) certainly has been busy filing two separate lawsuits that seek to end discrimination and racial profiling of immigrants and Latinos.
First in Arizona: On Monday the ACLU, Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the National Immigration Law Center, National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center filed a lawsuit to stop SB1070 on the grounds that it violates the Constitution’s 1st and 4th amendments, among other reasons.
From the L.A. Times:
The individual plaintiffs include a 70-year-old U.S. citizen of Spanish and Chinese descent who says he’s been stopped twice by Arizona police asking for “papers”; a Latino citizen studying at Arizona State University whose New Mexico driver’s license would not be accepted as proof of citizenship under the law; and a Jamaican immigrant who fears police will not believe the photocopy of a judge’s order that he be allowed to stay in the country, the only paperwork he has that gives him legal status here.
MALDEF, ACLU And NILC To Announce Challenge To Arizona Racial Profiling Law At Press Conference In Phoenix
6:35 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · arizona|Immigration|Justice · Comments Off
29 Apr 2010For those waiting to find out about a legal challenge to SB1070, looks like there will be announcement about the next steps to make that happen later today in Phoenix.
Civil Rights Leaders Dolores Huerta And Richard Chavez Joined By Famed Musician And Arizona Native Linda Ronstadt To Condemn New Law
PHOENIX – On Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. (MST), MALDEF, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Arizona and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) will hold a news conference on the steps of the State Capitol Executive Tower in Phoenix, Arizona to announce that they are preparing to challenge Arizona’s extreme new law, which requires law enforcement to question people about their immigration status during everyday police encounters and criminalizes immigrants for failing to carry their “papers.” The unconstitutional law, the groups say, encourages racial profiling, endangers public safety and betrays American values.
Speakers will include Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF President and General Counsel; Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arizona; Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America; Richard Chavez, civil rights leader; and Linda Ronstadt, multi-Grammy winning artist and human rights advocate.
Fifteen years ago, MALDEF, ACLU and NILC successfully challenged Proposition 187 in the state of California, where a voter-approved initiative required proof of legal status to access virtually all public services. The enactment of Prop 187, as it was commonly referred to, tore apart schools and communities across the state as fear and suspicion became pervasive, and the state wasted tens of millions of dollars defending a law ultimately struck down as unconstitutional.
One of the lessons I learned from my mentor Richie Perez (RIP) is that struggle must happen on multiple fronts : in the media, on the streets, and in the courts. I look forward to hearing about this arm of the batalla.
Hola!
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