The latest news relating to the political world as it impacts the US Latino community.
MALDEF anxiously awaits a federal court ruling regarding whether the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) will be released from a 29-year-old desegregation consent decree in United States v. Chicago Public Schools. After nearly a three-week hearing that ended in February 2009, MALDEF attorneys presented closing arguments urging a federal judge not to declare CPS “Unitary,” thus [...]
Last Friday, President Obama announced his intent to nominate attorney Tom Perez to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice. Perez, who is a nationally recognized civil rights lawyer and consumer advocate, currently serves as the Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR). A graduate [...]
In Texas, Republicans have won a fierce battle over requiring voters to present photo IDs at polls. It is widely perceived that this bill is largely aimed at Hispanics, the fastest-growing group of voters in Texas. Many Latinos feel it is part of state Republican efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. Republican leaders negate [...]
This morning, Vice President Joe Biden swore in California Representative Hilda Solis as the next Secretary of Labor, one of three cabinet posts that had yet to be formally filled. Solis is the first Latina cabinet member in the Obama administration. Biden said, “When she held hearings on sweatshops, she was heard. When she fought [...]
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice opened an investigation against Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio due to his alleged patterns of racial discrimination against Hispanics. Activists have long complained of his use of racial profiling in Maricopa County to detain citizens and legal residents on the sheer suspicion that they are undocumented. In early February, Arpaio [...]
On Monday of this week, the Supreme Court delivered a severe blow to the process used by many legal advocates of minority voting rights. In a 5-4 ruling, Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for the majority, set a new threshold for the use of Section 2 of the Federal Voting Rights Act which allows challenges when [...]
Congress has approved a spending bill that includes easing trade and travel restrictions against Cuba. The provisions are part of a $410 billion spending bill approved by the Senate on Tuesday and passed earlier by the House of Representatives. Later today, President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill sign into law. The measure [...]
With a new administration committed to environmental issues, many environmentalists are feeling the pressure to add diversity to the movement, in both membership and at higher levels of leadership. National environmental organizations have traditionally drawn memberships from the white and affluent and have faced criticism for focusing on protecting resources rather than addressing the issues [...]
The drug war in Mexico is blamed for killing more than 6,300 people since January 2008, including more than 1,000 in the first two months of this year alone. The violence has put an enormous damper on Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s government, which has vowed to wipe out the cartels. According to the U.S. Justice [...]
The busiest illegal immigration corridors on the U.S. – Mexico border are becoming increasingly quiet. As the U.S. economy suffers and enforcement increases, the number of illegal immigrants arrested on the border has fallen dramatically. San Luis Rio Colorado, a border town in the Mexican state of Sonora, was once bustling with migrants but now [...]
