There is plenty of information in this edition of the News Summary.
If you are interested in the achievement of Latino students in college, you may want to read a report recently issued by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. In Texas and across the nation, the Institute found that Latino college students were less likely to graduate than white students. The Executive Summary to the report offers several recommendations for closing the gap, including:
- A High Level of Institutional Commitment. The most consistent finding of our report is that an institutional focus on and commitment to high levels of retention and completion for all students is a crucial prerequisite to maintaining and improving the percentage of Hispanic students who complete a bachelor’s degree.
- Better Consumer Information. Hispanic students and their families often suffer from a lack of information about the true cost of college, the type of college they are qualified to attend, and college practices and culture.
- A Focus on Retention and Graduation Rates. Improving consumer information is unlikely to promote college completion in the absence of incentives for schools to focus on retention and graduation rates.
- Incentives for Institutional Improvement. Government aid to colleges and universities should be tied to whether schools meet meaningful performance metrics. At the federal level, the criteria that designate a college or university as an HSI should be augmented. Fulfilling the criteria to become an HSI makes schools eligible to compete for federal Title V funding and marks the institution as being at the forefront of Hispanic higher education. At present, the HSI designation does not reflect an institution’s performance on outcomes, such as student retention, graduation, and labor-market success.
To find links to the entire report and the executive summary, go to:
http://www.aei.org/paper/100093
In another study of Latino youth, the NCLR has released a Statistical Brief profiling Latinos between the ages of 15 and 24. According to their report, they found the following:
- Nearly one in five (17.8%) of all youth ages 15–24 in the U.S. is Latino.
- Nearly three in four (74.3%) Latinos ages 15–24 in the U.S. are U.S. citizens.
- Nearly one in four (24.2%) U.S. youth in poverty is Latino.
- More than one in five (21.4%) Hispanics ages 16–24 has dropped out of high school.
- Nearly two in five (37.7%) Latino youth are uninsured.
- Only 72.7% of Hispanics ages 18–24 hold a high school diploma or the equivalent, a percentage markedly lower than that of their Black (88.8%) and White (93.5%) peers.
- The unemployment rate for Latinos ages 20–24 rose by 6.4 percentage points to 16.7% between 2008 and 2009.
To find a link to the Brief, go to:
http://www.nclr.org/content/publications/detail/62014/
You will find this information and more in this News Summary.
As always, I hope you find the referenced news articles informative.
Best Wishes.
Prepared by
John Vasquez
Chair-Elect
Hispanic Issues Section, State Bar of Texas
johnvasq@gmail.com
NOTE: This News Summary is a service of the Hispanic Issues Section of the State Bar of Texas, Brian Hamner, Chair. If you would like to support HIS, visit
http://www.texasbar.com/Template.cfm?Section=Sections and click “MyBarPage” (near the bottom of the page) to join online. For further information, contact the Sections Department at 1-800-204-2222 or (512) 427-1463 ext. 1420.
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Top News
Hispanics in Texas less likely to graduate college
DALLAS — Texas follows the national trend with Hispanics less likely to graduate from public and private universities compared to whites.
The study by the nonprofit American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research used data from six-year graduation rates from the National Center for Education Statistics.
The study found that 51 percent of Hispanics who started college earned a bachelor's degree within six years, compared to 59 percent of whites.
The Texas figures indicate 40 percent of Hispanics graduated within six years, compared with 45 percent for whites.
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/hispanics-in-texas-less-likely-to-graduate-college-419312.html
To read a summary of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research report with a link to the entire report, go to:
http://www.aei.org/paper/100093
GROWTH OF LATINO YOUTH ON THE RISE IN U.S., BUT THESE TEENS AND YOUNG ADULTS FACE SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES, NCLR REPORT FINDS
Washington, DC—Nearly one in five teens and young adults in the United States is Latino, and three-quarters of these youth are U.S. citizens. These are some of the data outlined in America’s Tomorrow: A Profile of Latino Youth, a new report released by NCLR (National Council of La Raza), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S.
http://www.nclr.org/content/news/detail/62126/
To find a link to the report “America’s Tomorrow: A profile of Latino Youth”, go to:
http://www.nclr.org/content/publications/detail/62014/
Dallas council targets interest conflicts on judge-selection panel
The Dallas City Council voted Wednesday to bar lawyers who appear before municipal court judges from serving on the council-appointed panel that nominates judges.
But in a change that sparked considerably more controversy, council members also eliminated a requirement that the judicial nominating panel include lawyers who are members of race-based legal associations such as the Dallas Hispanic Bar Association.
The decision to exclude lawyers who appear in municipal court from the nominating panel is intended to resolve the potential conflict of interest inherent in city judges' ruling on cases defended by lawyers who help select them. The change will not apply to current commission members.
But the move to eliminate the minority bar association-nominated positions on the panel came after some council members felt their authority to make their own selections was being undercut.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-daljudges_08met.ART.Central.Edition1.4c60e2c.html
Federal judge strikes down Farmers Branch ordinance against renting to illegal immigrants
For the second time, a federal judge has declared unconstitutional a Farmers Branch ordinance banning illegal immigrants from renting in the city.
U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle of Dallas ruled Wednesday that the ordinance was an attempt to enforce U.S. immigration laws – something the judge said only the federal government can do.
The judge also issued a permanent injunction to stop Farmers Branch from enforcing Ordinance 2952.
Mayor Tim O'Hare, the driving force behind the ordinances, said he wants to appeal.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/032510dnmetfbord.1dce73fb1.html
To read the opinion in VILLAS AT PARKSIDE PARTNERS d/b/a VILLAS AT PARKSIDE, et al., and VALENTIN REYES, et al., v. The City of Farmers Branch, Texas, go to:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/03-10/0324fbboyleorder.pdf
More children are extremely obese
A study of Southern California children enrolled in the Kaiser Permanente health plan shows that extreme obesity is not a rare occurrence. The survey of more than 710,000 children ages 2 to 19 found 7.3% of boys and 5.5% of girls were extremely obese. That's about 45,000 children in this study group alone. Extreme obesity is defined as having a body mass index of more than 35. Obesity is defined as a BMI of more than 30, so these children are significantly heavier than that.
The survey found that 12% of black teenage girls and 11.2% of Hispanic teenage boys had extreme obesity. The authors of the study, from Kaiser Permanente, warn that this level of obesity often continues into adulthood and carries many health risks.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/03/obesity-children.html
Study: Federal judges tougher on blacks, Hispanics
Federal judges have been giving black and Hispanic males longer sentences as compared to white males since a 2005 Supreme Court decision converted federal sentencing guidelines from mandates to suggestions, a recently released U.S. Sentencing Commission report says.
Local criminal defense attorneys and law professors said they're skeptical about the study's results and don't want to see a return to mandatory guidelines.
Robert Cindrich, chief legal officer for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, resigned his position as a federal judge in 2004 partly in protest over the mandatory guidelines. He said sentencing guidelines have a place in justice, but so does 40 years of experience as a public defender, prosecutor and judge. Cindrich found himself bound by a process with all the wisdom of a calculator.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_672788.html
New Student Loan Measures Will Make College More Affordable, Particularly for Minority Students
The Senate yesterday passed the reconciliation bill in one of the final steps in the year-long struggle for health care reform. But as it did so, it simultaneously approved a proposal that would help millions of young people afford college—especially Latinos and African Americans.
The most important education investment in the bill is $36 billion for the Pell grant program, which provides need-based grants to low- and middle-income students. The bill ties the maximum Pell grant award to inflation to ensure that it maintains more of its value overtime, and increases the maximum award to $5,550 next year.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/03/safra_minorities.html
Commentary: Obama beats Bush on deportations
A lot of immigration advocates who voted for Barack Obama got less than they bargained for.
Either because Democrats have a reputation for being progressive on civil rights, or because too many Republicans drape the immigration issue in fear and demagoguery, many immigrant rights activists assume that Democrats are more forgiving toward illegal immigrants than are Republicans.
According to internal memos obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting and The Washington Post, officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement were so eager to drive up the number of deportations beyond the level they were in Bush’s last year that they set quotas and spelled out how agents could meet them.
In a February memo, James M. Chaparro, head of ICE detention and removal operations, noted that the overall number of deportations for the year that ended in September 2009 was just over 310,000 – “well under the agency’s goal of 400,000.” Chaparro suggested increasing detention space to hold more illegal immigrants, sweeping prisons and jails to find likely deportees, and deporting illegal immigrants who committed only minor violations.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/apr/07/obama-beats-bush-on-deportations/
Court: Defendants entitled to immigration advice
WASHINGTON -- Immigrants have a constitutional right to be told by their lawyers whether pleading guilty to a crime could lead to their deportation, the Supreme Court said Wednesday.
The high court's ruling extends the Constitution's Sixth Amendment guarantee of "effective assistance of counsel" in criminal cases to immigration advice, especially in cases that involve deportation.
"The severity of deportation - the equivalent of banishment or exile - only underscores how critical it is for counsel to inform her noncitizen client that he faces a risk of deportation," said Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the opinion for the court.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/31/AR2010033101343.html
To read the US Supreme Court decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, go to:
http://topics.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/08-651
Mentally ill detainees' care criticized
A growing number of immigrants with mental health issues are being held in federal detention centers that are ill-equipped to care for them, and their cases are being handled in courts that lack consistent procedures to ensure they receive fair hearings, according to a report released today by a Texas advocacy group.
The report, the culmination of a yearlong research project, details what the authors say is a systematic problem in the nation's immigration courts and detention centers. Immigrants with mental disabilities are routinely treated in an unjust and inhumane manner by the system, they said. Texas houses at least one quarter of all immigration detainees in the United States.
Detainees, for example, are often placed in solitary confinement, sometimes for weeks or months, when they display symptoms of mental disability, because untrained detention staff see them as a behavior problem.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6936070.html
To read the report “Justice for Immigration’s Hidden Population”, go to:
http://blogs.chron.com/immigration/archives/2010/03/report_says_car.html
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Long Island Murder Trial
Prosecutors Describe ‘Hunt’ for Hispanic Victim
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — In a packed Long Island courtroom, a prosecutor laid out in chilling detail the “sport” that she said the defendant and his friends had made out of attacking Hispanic men.
“On Nov. 8, 2008, the hunt was on,” Megan O’Donnell, the prosecutor, told 12 jurors and 4 alternates in State Supreme Court on Thursday.
The defendant, Jeffrey Conroy, 19, was one of seven Patchogue-Medford High School students who the police and prosecutors said attacked an Ecuadorean immigrant, Marcelo Lucero, in November 2008. The fatal stabbing of Mr. Lucero shocked many on Long Island and focused new attention on assaults and harassment of Latinos in the area.
“They were not in Patchogue looking to go to a party,” said Ms. O’Donnell, an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County. They were, instead, “looking for blood — specifically, Mexican blood.” They called the sport Mexican-hopping or beaner-hopping, she said.
Ms. O’Donnell told the jurors that Mr. Conroy expressed his feelings of white supremacy, both in the tattoos on his body and in the statements that he made to others, and that he made Hispanics targets because of their ethnicity and because he “felt these people were easy targets” who were unlikely to call the police.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/nyregion/19patchogue.html
Officer Says Long Island Teenager Confessed to Stabbing
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — The police officer who patted down the Long Island teenager accused of fatally stabbing an Ecuadorean immigrant in Patchogue in 2008 testified on Monday that the teenager had told him he had a knife. The officer recounted how he found blood on the blade and how the young man then made another admission.
“He paused for a minute, and he said, ‘I stabbed him,’ ” the officer, Michael Richardsen of the Suffolk County Police Department, said in a courtroom in State Supreme Court here.
The testimony represented the first time during the murder trial of the teenager that the jury heard from a police officer who spoke with the defendant minutes after the stabbing that November evening. The teenager, Jeffrey Conroy, now 19, is accused of second-degree murder as a hate crime, gang assault and other charges. The authorities said Mr. Conroy was one of seven teenagers who singled out and attacked the immigrant, Marcelo Lucero, because they had made a sport out of randomly assaulting Latino men on eastern Long Island.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/nyregion/23patchogue.html
Jury Shown Swastika Tattoo in Hate-Crime Trial
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Keith Brunjes and his best friend were hanging out watching the HBO prison series “Oz” one day in 2008 when they decided to get homemade tattoos, the kind depicted on the show. They bought ink at a Michaels arts and crafts store, and Mr. Brunjes studied up on the subject.
Mr. Brunjes, 18, said he first gave his friend a lightning-bolt tattoo in May 2008, and then a star, using ink, a needle and thread. About a month and a half later, he said, he gave him a third one on his right upper thigh: a swastika. The two friends did not discuss why.
“I didn’t ask about it,” Mr. Brunjes said. “He wanted it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/nyregion/24patchogue.html?src=me
Racial Slurs Preceded L.I. Attack, Victim’s Friend Testifies
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Walking in Patchogue with a friend shortly before midnight on a Saturday in November 2008, Angel Loja saw some young people approaching them.
“I noticed that this group that was coming, they didn’t have good intentions,” Mr. Loja said Wednesday in a Long Island courtroom. “They looked furious.”
Mr. Loja had met up with his friend, Marcelo Lucero, about 2 p.m. earlier that day, Nov. 8. They had been childhood friends in Ecuador, and they separately came to America and ended up settling in the same small village of Patchogue, living about eight blocks from each other. Mr. Loja, now 37, worked in construction; Mr. Lucero, 37 at the time, worked in a dry-cleaning store.
They were on their way to a friend’s house when they saw the seven young men approach. Mr. Loja said he took two steps back, and then the insults started. Mr. Loja said the group called him and Mr. Lucero “Mexicans” and “illegals” and used racial and ethnic slurs against blacks and Hispanics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/nyregion/25patchogue.html
Layers of Contradiction in L.I. Hate-Crime Trial
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — The crime seemed brutally simple: Seven high school students attacked two Hispanic immigrants in Patchogue in November 2008, prosecutors said, after a night of “Mexican hopping,” a sport made of assaulting Latino men in Suffolk County on eastern Long Island.
Yet, more than a year later, in a room in State Supreme Court here, the picture that has emerged of the crime and the role that race played in it is proving to be far more complex, and even contradictory.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/nyregion/27patchogue.html
NY immigrants say tensions fade after bias attack
PATCHOGUE, N.Y. — Before an Ecuadorean immigrant was fatally stabbed in what prosecutors say was a hate crime by a swastika-tattooed teen, the illegal Latin American immigrants in this suburban middle-class village feared telling police about the young men on bikes who hurled stones and spit slurs at them.
There was always the chance, they believed, that a report to the police would get them deported or would simply be ignored. But much has changed since the November 2008 night when Marcelo Lucero, 37, was attacked by teens — six white, one of Puerto Rican descent — who prosecutors say hunted Patchogue that day for Hispanics to attack.
With a man on trial for murder in Lucero's killing, immigrants say the Suffolk Police Department has made a visible and seemingly committed effort to reach them.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iyOq7mhNW2WjpPOWuAd607cd0xxgD9EN8UN00
Teenager Testifies About Attacking Latinos for Sport
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — It was a Friday night in November 2008, and three Long Island teenagers looking for something to do ended up talking about going “beaner hopping.”
Nicholas Hausch, 18, testifying on Monday in State Supreme Court here, described what that meant. “It’s when you go out and you look for a Hispanic to beat up,” Mr. Hausch told the packed courtroom.
Mr. Hausch said that he and two friends drove to Patchogue that Friday night and used Mr. Hausch’s pistol-style BB gun to shoot at a Hispanic man on his porch. The next night — Saturday, Nov. 8 — Mr. Hausch was again in Patchogue with friends when they spotted a Hispanic man rolling his bicycle.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/nyregion/30patchogue.html
Detective Testifies Long Island Teenager Confessed to Fatal Stabbing of Latino Man in 2008
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — The Long Island teenager accused of killing a Hispanic immigrant in 2008 confessed to the police that he had stabbed the man after he and a group of friends agreed to go looking for a Mexican to beat up, the lead homicide detective in the case testified on Monday.
In a five-page written statement to the police that the detective read aloud in court, the teenager, Jeffrey Conroy, said that one of the two Hispanic men he and his friends had approached that night in Patchogue started swinging a belt to defend himself, and Mr. Conroy said that he was struck by it on the head.
“I went toward him with my knife,” Mr. Conroy said in the statement, adding that he stabbed the man once. He later remarked, “I don’t blame the Spanish guy for swinging the belt at us.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/nyregion/06patchogue.html
Youth Recants Confession in Hate Crime Trial
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — The Long Island teenager charged with killing a Hispanic immigrant in a racially motivated attack took the stand on Thursday, not only to proclaim his innocence, but also to accuse another teenager of the murder.
The defendant, Jeffrey Conroy, told the courtroom that one of the teenagers he was with actually stabbed the immigrant and asked him to take the knife and risk taking the blame for the crime.
Seated on the witness stand in a tieless white button-down shirt, Mr. Conroy said, referring to the other teenager: “He said, ‘Jeff, I think I just stabbed the guy in the shoulder. I really cannot get in trouble with this. Can you please take the knife?’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/nyregion/09patchogue.html
Veracity of the Defendant Is Key in Hate-Killing Trial
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — By Wednesday, when the prosecution rested its case against the Long Island teenager accused of killing a Hispanic immigrant as part of a hate crime, the jury had listened to testimony from 23 witnesses since March 18 and had seen scores of exhibits, including surveillance video, maps, blood-stained clothes and a picture of a swastika tattoo on the teenager’s leg.
By Friday, when the defense rested, the jurors had heard nearly four hours of testimony from just two more witnesses. One was the defendant’s mother. The other was the defendant, Jeffrey Conroy.
The significance of Mr. Conroy’s testimony, delivered Thursday to a crowded and at times stunned courtroom, remains the biggest question mark in the case as closing arguments are most likely to begin on Monday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/nyregion/10patchogue.html
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Texas
Court clears way for Boerne shift to single-member council districts
Boerne voters who cast ballots in May elections will choose city council representatives from five single-member districts rather than through cumulative voting.
Acting in a voting-rights case filed in 1996, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia on Wednesday rejected an attempt by Boerne resident Michael Morton to block the change to single-member districts. The change, approved by the council in December, was part of a settlement agreement with the League of United Latin American Citizens.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/88272542.html
Commentary: The Texas curriculum — politics, race and religion
The Lone Star state has more power than most states when it comes to establishing not only what will be taught in Texas but in the rest of the nation. The reason for this is simple as James C. McKinley, Jr. of The New York Times reported because “the state is one of the largest buyers of textbooks.” What becomes the established curriculum in Texas often is adopted by smaller states because the textbooks are available.
The latest clash inside the Texas Board of Education concerns what should be taught in the social studies program for elementary through high school. The majority of the board voted for a return to conservative values. “We are adding balance. History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left.” As quoted in The New York Times article, those are the words of Dr. Don McLeroy who led the conservative group of 10.
http://www.desertdispatch.com/opinion/texas-8117-rest-power.html
Commentary: Rivas-Rodriguez: Demand a full historical account
The Texas State Board of Education seemed to be listening closely in January and March as witnesses came from across the state to urge members to consider revisions to social studies curriculum standards. But apparently it didn't hear because board members recently voted along party lines to omit many of recommended revisions, revisions that would have provided a more complete and accurate story of Texas and U.S. history.
Some revisions concern Mexican American civil rights — in particular, the significant advances made by the World War II generation to dismantle a segregated social order.
The inclusion would have fit into high school social studies, which expects students to know about World War II and "the home front and how American patriotism inspired exceptional actions by citizens and military personnel volunteerism and military enlistment, including high levels of military enlistment ... and opportunities and obstacles for women and ethnic minorities."
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/rivas-rodriguez-demand-a-full-historical-account-381713.html
Number of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises
The number of illegal immigrant college students paying in-state tuition and receiving financial aid at Texas' public colleges and universities continues to climb, according to state higher education records.
During the fall semester, 12,138 students – about 1 percent of all Texas college students – benefited from the state law granting in-state tuition, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Most of the immigrants among those students are illegal, and some others are not legal permanent residents or U.S. citizens.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/0315dnmetimmigcount.3d35b14.html
Area census workers out for the count of minorities, immigrants
IRVING – A conga line shimmies to a Bhangra beat as revelers throw magenta- and marigold-colored powder in an Indian celebration of spring known as Holi.
Among the guests here are U.S. Census Bureau workers, eager to spread the word about the government's own mission of renewal. The biggest ever decennial head count of the nation begins in full force this week with the mailing of 10-question census forms to more than 130 million addresses.
Texas' population is now more than 50 percent minority. Nearly a fifth of the Dallas-Fort Worth area's population is foreign-born. Worries are high that immigrant, minority and young populations won't be accurately counted, so the census is using more resources to make sure it reaches hard-to-count populations.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/031610dnmetcensus.40c868a.html
Hispanic man believes he was not promoted because of race
LUFKIN-A Hispanic male employee of Sam Houston Electric Cooperative claims he was more qualified for the position of electronics technician than the Caucasian candidate that was hired.
Acting as his own attorney, Argemiro Garcia filed suit against his employer on March 22 in the Lufkin Division of the Eastern District of Texas.
After his company hired a Caucasian male for the position in September 2007, Garcia complained to his managers of the discrimination. Thereafter, Garcia filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/225571-hispanic-man-believes-he-was-not-promoted-because-of-race
Acusa a FB de prejuicio
Farmers Branch La vecina de Juan García dice que es un héroe porque entró a su casa en llamas en Farmers Branch y recató a su esposo.
Pero en vez de un reconocimiento por su heroísmo, dice García, lo que recibió de la policía de Farmers Branch fue un arresto bajo cargos de intoxicación en la vía pública y asalto, por tocar a un oficial que llegó a ver el incendio. La policía de Farmers Branch dijo que el arresto ocurrido en febrero estaba justificado porque García, de 50 años, se mostró agresivo e interfirió con el trabajo de los bomberos.
García dice que estaba en su casa viendo televisión la tarde del 27 de febrero cuando se incendió la casa de su vecino. Dijo que oyó a su vecina, Leticia Córdova, gritar pidiendo ayuda y decir que su esposo estaba en el interior. García entró y, con la ayuda de su hijo, extrajo al esposo de Córdova.
"Para mí es un héroe: salvó una vida", dijo Córdova. "La policía no hizo nada".
Cuando llegaron la policía y los bomberos, García estaba afuera, dijo, desorientado por inhalación de humo. Se molestó, dijo su abogado, cuando los bomberos no acudieron a ayudarlo.
http://www.aldiatx.com/sharedcontent/dws/aldia/locales/stories/DN-FBman_07dia.ART.State.Edition1.4c79cf8.html
Crecen costos legales de Farmers Branch
El monto de honorarios legales sigue aumentando por la ordenanza de Farmers Branch que regula la renta de espacios habitacionales a inmigrantes indocumentados.
El despacho Bickel & Brewer Storefront entregó una factura por $850,000 esta semana en una corte federal para cobrar su parte en la exitosa impugnación a la constitucionalidad de la ordenanza.
http://www.aldiatx.com/sharedcontent/dws/aldia/locales/stories/DN-FarmersBranch_10dia.ART.State.Edition1.4c855e1.html
César Chávez tiene calle en Dallas
La alcaldía de Dallas develó el viernes los señalamientos del nuevo César Chávez Boulevard que tanto pelearon activistas latinos durante casi dos años.
La nomenclatura reemplazará los letreros del Central Expressway entre las calles Pacific y Grand a partir de este fin de semana, dijo el concejal Steve Salazar en una ceremonia que reunió a activistas latinos y a funcionarios que se opusieron a poner el nombre del líder laboral y de derechos civiles a las avenidas Industrial o Ross.
Salazar dijo que el debate, lejos de dividir, enriqueció la dinámica del cabildo, ya que educó a los concejales no-hispanos sobre un tema que los latinos consideran importante: reconocer a sus personajes trascendentales.
http://www.aldiatx.com/sharedcontent/dws/aldia/main-lead/stories/DN-Chavez_10dia.State.Edition1.2cc51c8.html
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USA
Group finds discrimination in Napa Valley housing
Renters with Spanish accents continue to receive discriminatory treatment when they look for housing in Napa County, Fair Housing Napa Valley reported.
In telephone tests conducted last summer, callers with identifiable accents were discriminated against half the time, Kathryn Winter, Fair Housing’s executive director, said Tuesday.
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/news/local/article_a6e9c07a-3186-11df-99d5-001cc4c002e0.html
Work to cease on 'virtual fence' along U.S.-Mexico border
The Obama administration will halt new work on a "virtual fence" on the U.S.-Mexican border, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday, diverting $50 million in planned economic stimulus funds for the project to other purposes.
Napolitano said the freeze on work beyond two pilot projects in Arizona was pending a broader reassessment. But the move signals a likely death knell for a troubled five-year plan to drape a chain of tower-mounted sensors and other surveillance gear across most of the 2,000-mile southern border.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/16/AR2010031603573.html
Ariz. House postpones vote on immigration bill
The Arizona House postponed a vote Wednesday on a bill that would criminalize the presence of illegal border-crossers in the state and ban soft immigration policies in police agencies.
The proposal would make Arizona the only state to criminalize the presence of the state's estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants through an expansion of its trespassing law.
http://www.azstarnet.com/news/state-and-regional/article_8ca3e92f-7f90-5860-809d-6771eabbe8e0.html
Arizona activists cited for leaving water for illegals
Activists say they are merely leaving drinking water as an act of mercy.
Illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border through the Arizona desert are dying, activists say, citing dozens of deaths since Oct. 1 in the four Arizona border counties.
Federal officials say the activists are littering the landscape of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, 38 miles south of Tucson, Ariz., and issued at least 14 citations to the volunteers. The hearing is scheduled for April.
Last summer, 13 volunteers from three groups — No More Deaths, Tucson Samaritans and Humane Borders — decided to protest a prior littering citation by traveling to the refuge and leaving plastic water bottles for immigrants. Refuge officials ticketed the volunteers for littering.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/17/arizona-activists-cited-leaving-water-illegals/
Senators announce framework for bipartisan immigration bill
Days before a planned march in Washington, D.C., two U.S. senators announced their framework Thursday for a bipartisan immigration bill that would increase resources for border enforcement, create a biometric Social Security card to prevent forgeries and legalize millions of undocumented immigrants.
Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) laid out their proposal in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, saying that "the American people deserve more than empty rhetoric and impractical calls for mass deportation." The plan also calls for creation of a program to admit temporary workers.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immig19-2010mar19%2C0%2C7184697.story
White sheriff's deputy testifies he was target of racial discrimination at Compton station
A white sheriff's deputy suing the county for racial discrimination testified today that he could not count on any of his Latino colleagues from the Compton station to come to his aid in the field, while at the station he was considered a snitch.
"I felt like I could clear a room when I walked in,'' Deputy Richard Wade told a Los Angeles Superior Court jury. "People didn't want anything to do with me because they thought I was a rat.''
Richard Wade and his twin Ryan Wade, both 33, sued the county in July 2008, alleging harassment, retaliation, discrimination and a failure of the Sheriff's Department to correct the problem.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/03/22/white-sheriffs-deputy-testifies-he-was-target-raci/
Study: Minor Offenses Getting Illegal Immigrants Deported
A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows most illegal immigrants arrested by law enforcement in North Carolina are being deported for minor offenses.
"The study found that the majority of unauthorized immigrants are deported for driving-related offenses, not serious or violent crimes," wrote researchers Hannah Gill, Ph.D., assistant director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas, and Mai Nguyen, Ph.D., assistant professor in UNC's city and regional planning department in the College of Arts and Sciences. Gill also is a research associate at UNC's Center for Global Initiatives.
http://orange.mync.com/site/Orange/news/story/49764/study-minor-offenses-getting-illegal-immigrants-deported/
To read the University of North Carolina study, go to:
http://isa.unc.edu/migration/resources.asp
Renton landlord faces discrimination complaint
Federal housing authorities have filed administrative charges against a Renton landlord following allegations of discrimination.
In a Department of Housing and Urban Development statement issued Tuesday, federal authorities contend the owners and operators of Summerhill Apartments discriminated against black, Latino and Asian applicants for housing.
According to the statement, undercover "testers" applying to live at the complex were offered different rent amounts based on their races. One employee there is also accused of asking accusatory questions and making racist statements to would-be tenants.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/417974_HUD06.html
Former coach files discrimination lawsuit against Harper
Palatine, Illinois - Harper College is facing a federal lawsuit from its former baseball coach, alleging school officials made him undergo multiple background checks and ultimately fired him because of his Hispanic heritage.
Mark Hernandez of St. Charles filed the federal lawsuit Friday against Harper College, a community college in Palatine.
Hernandez, who was hired in May 2007 to be Harper's head baseball coach and served in adjunct faculty positions, claims in the lawsuit that the school ran a initial background check on him that September, which returned multiple conviction records for other people named “Mark Hernandez.”
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/pioneerpress/latest/2138921,harper-lawsuit-040310-s1.article
Ex-deputy's lawsuit claims racial discrimination
New Mexico - A former Valencia County Sheriff's Deputy is suing the county commission, alleging he was discriminated against because he is white and suffering from a back injury.
Rodney Johnson alleges in a lawsuit filed in 13th Judicial District Court that he was injured on the job, and because he is a white man, he was refused the same consideration a Hispanic officer was afforded.
The lawsuit says Johnson complained in November 2008 that he was not receiving overtime and supervisory pay while employed with the sheriff's office in various positions including court security supervisor, director of vehicle maintenance, drafting grants and patrol duty.
http://www.news-bulletin.com/nb/index.php/news/1922-ex-deputys-lawsuit-claims-racial-discrimination.html
Hampton fired four shots, witness says in court
BARNSTABLE — A man in the custody of federal immigration authorities testified in Barnstable Superior Court yesterday that Devarus Hampton fired a gun at him in November 2008.
Hampton's trial was to begin last month, but it was postponed because Dimas Hernandez, a key witness in the case, was not brought to court.
On the stand, Hernandez told jurors that Hampton approached him in front of his house on Fresh Holes Road in Hyannis, said Hispanic people didn't belong there and pointed a gun at his head. He testified that Hampton then fired four shots. Hernandez said he jumped out of the way in time to escape injury.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100326/NEWS/3260320/-1/NEWSMAP
Ex-Fiancee: Former Chief Admitted Inmate Killing
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ― The ex-fiancee of a former Shenandoah police chief says he admitted taking part in the beating death of a Hispanic teenager while he was in police custody more than five years ago.
A lawyer for the parents of 18-year-old victim David Vega read excerpts from Angela Pleva's statement in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg on Thursday.
Pleva said former chief Matthew Nestor told her that he and another officer killed Vega in November 2004 after "things got out of hand."
The defendants maintain Vega hanged himself, but the parents' lawsuit alleges the two officers beat him and then tried to make his death look like a suicide.
http://cbs3.com/wireapnewspa/Former.Pa.police.2.1608047.html
9th Circuit Orders New Trial for Fired Workers
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial Monday for 23 women who say a Fresno, Calif., company illegally fired them because of their limited fluency in English.
In an unpublished 2-1 ruling, the 9th Circuit panel said the district court erroneously allowed attorneys for Nibco Inc., an Indiana-headquartered piping system manufacturer, to use peremptory challenges to boot three Hispanic jurors.
"Taking into account the fact that Nibco used its strikes disproportionately against Hispanic jurors in a case involving claims of national origin discrimination against Hispanic workers ... the district court's conclusion that Nibco's proffered reasons were not pretexts for discrimination was clearly erroneous," concluded Judges Stephen Reinhardt and Michael Daly Hawkins.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202447132345&th_Circuit_Orders_New_Trial_for_Fired_Workers
To read the opinion, go to:
http://www.leagle.com/unsecure/page.htm?shortname=infco20100329125
2 lawmakers question details of immigration bill
An immigration proposal at the Arizona Legislature has been met with skepticism by a pair of lawmakers who questioned whether it would violate freedom of association rights.
Their questions arose last week over a provision that would make it illegal for people to transport illegal immigrants if the drivers of vehicles know their passengers are in the country illegally and if the transportation furthers their illegal presence in the country.
They question whether a driver who brings people to church or parents who give rides to their child's friends would be committing a crime if their passengers were illegal immigrants.
http://azstarnet.com/news/state-and-regional/article_8ca3e92f-7f90-5860-809d-6771eabbe8e0.html
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General Interest
Commentary: Latinos need help to end 'dropout crisis'
President Obama recently outlined his plans for improving the nation's schools in a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "For America to compete and to win in the 21st century ... we will need a highly educated workforce," he said. Obama noted that more than a million kids do not finish high school each year, and that over half of these are black and Hispanic.
The dropout problem has long bedeviled the Hispanic community. According to a 2009 report by the Pew Hispanic Center, the Latino high school dropout rate is 17% — nearly three times the rate for whites (6%), and almost double the rate for blacks (9%). Hispanics also attend college at lower rates than their peers.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/03/column-latinos-need-help-to-end-dropout-crisis.html
Más latinos encarcelados: De los casi 72,000 adolescentes que están presos, 18 mil son hispanos
Los jóvenes latinos ocupan celdas en mayor proporción que otros grupos étnicos, porque a pesar de que los hispanos, que tienen de 10 a 17 años de edad, representan el 19% de la población total del país, en las cárceles son el 25%.
Es decir, de los casi 72,000 adolescentes que están presos al día, 18 mil son latinos. Otros 32 mil son negros y 21 mil blancos.
Así lo establece un estudio dado a conocer ayer por el Consejo Nacional de La Raza (NCLR) en el que expone que muchos jóvenes latinos están enfrentando serias dificultades para ser exitosos de adultos.
http://www.impre.com/noticias/2010/3/19/mas-latinos-encarcelados-178758-1.html
HNBA Announces Winners of 15th Annual Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition
WASHINGTON, March 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Law students representing 32 of the nation's top law schools gathered at the University of San Diego School of Law on March 5-6, 2010 to participate in the Hispanic National Bar Association's (HNBA) 15th Annual Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition.
The 15th Annual Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition Championship Round was judged by Chief Judge Irma Gonzalez (U.S. District Court for the S.D. of California); Chief Justice Paul J. De Muniz (Oregon Supreme Court); Justice (Ret.) Charles Z. Smith (Washington Supreme Court); Justice David Medina (Texas Supreme Court); Judge Gil Roman (Colorado Court of Appeals); and Tom Dupree, Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. The Competition's awards were presented during the event's closing Gala Dinner before nearly 400 people who were in attendance. The Competition's top four teams were:
National Champions: Loyola School of Law - Los Angeles
2nd Place: University of Texas School of Law
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hnba-announces-winners-of-15th-annual-uvaldo-herrera-national-moot-court-competition-88218197.html
Immigrant workers vulnerable to being shortchanged
WASHINGTON — On a recent Saturday morning, a group of Latino men wearing paint-spattered jeans and grim expressions strode through a Washington neighborhood in search of the contractor who had cheated them. He'd hired them to remodel a wine shop in November and December but paid a fraction of what he had promised before disappearing. Now they were hoping the shop owner could offer clues as to the contractor's whereabouts.
Luis Colli, 33, a day laborer from Mexico, said he was owed more than $2,000 after more than a month's work. His wife back in Mexico urged him to "let this go," Colli said in Spanish, sighing wearily as the group reached the wine shop. "But I told her: 'If I let it go, then it means I've been intimidated. If I let it go, it means there's no justice.' "
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/6917291.html
Telling the Tales That Often Go Untold: Web site, class help immigrants from different nations share their experiences
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Jack Doppelt is all about connections. So it's not surprising that the Northwestern University professor created a class in which students meet immigrants and present their stories on a Web site called Immigrant Connect.
Online, in the ethnic press and on Chicago public radio, Doppelt's students have helped tell the stories of newcomers to America that often go untold, unshared and unappreciated.
Since the interdisciplinary class was introduced last year by the Medill School of Journalism, Doppelt's students have been visiting Chicago-area ethnic neighborhoods and meeting with individual immigrants, ethnic journalists and immigrant advocacy groups.
"Historically the immigrant experience is one of isolation, and the sharing of stories and information is a time-honored antidote to isolation," said Doppelt, noting the Chicago area is home to 1.5 million immigrants. "Despite their common concerns, people who come to this country from different parts of the world seldom benefit from each other's experiences or stories."
Enter Immigrant Connect, the Web site at http://www.immigrantconnect.org/ that organizes its content around mutually shared immigrant experiences. "There's no area of the site particularly for Arabs, Latinos or Filipinos," said Doppelt. Instead, the site is arranged by nine topics familiar to most immigrants, subjects including "back home," "identity," "culture shock" and "fear of the law."
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/03/doppelt.html
Students complain of discrimination at UNI
CEDAR FALLS - A diverse group of students said they fear racially or culturally charged vandalism at the University of Northern Iowa.
They expressed anger and dismay at a perceived lack of support from authority figures.
Hispanic/Latino Student Union delegate Ramon Cantu, who last semester was assaulted and called a derogatory racial term at a party, said he still receives death threats whenever he speaks out, including one Saturday.
http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_4f244534-3ccd-11df-9b02-001cc4c002e0.html
Poll: Close to 9 in 10 Latinos to fill out census
WASHINGTON — What boycott? Close to 9 in 10 Hispanics say they intend to participate in the 2010 census, with immigrants more likely to say the government count is good for their community and that personal information will be kept confidential, according to a new poll.
The Pew Hispanic Center survey, released Thursday, appears largely to put aside concerns that Hispanic discontent with the government's slow progress on immigration reform will curtail participation in the high-stakes count now under way. The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders had suggested a Hispanic boycott of the census to protest the lack of action on immigration.
Hispanics, who make up roughly 15 percent of the nation's population, still tend to lag behind other racial groups when it comes to mailing in census forms. But the latest survey suggests the numbers may be improving and that, contrary to conventional notions, the hardest-to-reach may not be fearful immigrants but rather disenchanted Hispanics born in the U.S.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jTGv7QT7Je1QXJXMYZaMXlQiDyRAD9EQBJ582
To find a link to the entire report, go to:
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=121
Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the US population, but are the least likely to get college degrees
Latinos are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population but Latino students are the least likely to get college degrees. According to the Hispanic College Fund, that's mainly because of the lack of role models, poverty and being unprepared to navigate through the American educational system.
The nonprofit Hispanic College Fund (HCF) is working to change that by providing Latino youth with the information and tools they need to pursue a college degree in order to become more competitive in the 21st century economy.
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/american-life/Latinos-Get-a-Push-for-Education-89523592.html
Editorial: Latinos receive mixed signals about their importance in America
WASHINGTON -- Census Day was a big day at the office of the National Council of La Raza, not only because it was the final day of the drive to reduce the chronic undercount of Hispanic residents but because it marked a time when Latinos in the United States could obtain the latest measure of their growing political power.
The mixed signals that Hispanics receive from the larger community, ranging from the accolades for the first Hispanic woman on the high court to the threatening nativist rhetoric of Tom Tancredo at the first Tea Party convention, have produced an almost schizophrenic reaction among Latino constituencies and leaders.
While celebrating the gains they have recorded on such vital issues as healthcare, children's welfare and education from their alliance with Barack Obama, they fret about the backlash they see on illegal immigration and the growing gulf between their own community and most Republican officeholders.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/03/2086579/latinos-receive-mixed-signals.html
Viewpoints: Escalante system didn't translate well
I was deeply moved by the movie "Stand and Deliver", the 1988 motion picture starring actor Edward James Olmos, about the recently deceased Jaime Escalante. The public school teacher and Latino immigrant found fame at my alma mater, Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, by bringing national attention to racial discrimination involving Latino students.
Through sheer personality and drive, Escalante not only taught Garfield's Mexican American students calculus but prepared them to pass college entrance exams – only to be wrongfully accused of cheating. It was classic racial profiling: Poor and segregated Mexican kids were not supposed to pass such tests.
His tireless effort rose above lowered student expectations integral to racial segregation. Escalante's bilingual endeavor to push ganas, or desire, onto Garfield students turned conventional wisdom on its head. He was a life-changer for those aimless Latinos confined by the benign neglect of his colleagues and the structure of public schooling.
Then came the corporate and political influence, seeking to benefit from a teacher's incredible classroom accomplishment. Escalante played along, failing to adequately apply his momentous fame to enhance public teaching. He became a motivational speaker and a "go-to Latino" for Republicans supporting voter-passed anti-Latino state measures during the 1990s to end emergency services for undocumented immigrants, affirmative action and bilingual education. He dismissed Latino critics, claiming that he "put East Los Angeles on the map" and squandered his goodwill with hostility toward other teachers. This blinded Escalante from seeing that his ganas or desire-driven charisma in a segregated Garfield environment was not automatically transferable to non-Latino classrooms in Sacramento.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/09/2665872/escalante-system-didnt-translate.html
Students learning English at U.S. schools show improvement
MIAMI (AP) — Schoolchildren who are still learning English made progress on state tests over the last three years, according to a report that may indicate tougher accountability standards have resulted in positive gains among a growing segment of the U.S. public school population.
In a study released Wednesday, the nonprofit Center on Education Policy looked at the performance of English language learners — those students with limited English skills — on state tests in math and reading from 2006 to 2008, the years after federal testing for this group under the federal No Child Left Behind law became finalized.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-04-06-english-learners_N.htm
To find a link to the Center on Education Policy Report on English Language Learners, go to:
http://www.cep-dc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=document_ext.showDocumentByID&nodeID=1&DocumentID=305
Program helps children of migrant workers obtain university education
In the blueberry farms of Western Michigan during the summer of 1999, hundreds of migrant workers picked fruit in 90 degree heat, sweating in long-sleeve shirts and bandanas covering their necks to protect them from the sun. Among them was then-12-year-old Pedro Gonzales.
“My parents would tell me, ‘I don’t want you to be working next to me,’” Gonzales said.
By the time he was a senior in high school, Gonzales still didn’t see college as an option. He was barely able to graduate because of difficulties transferring credits from the high schools he attended in three different states. He hadn’t taken his ACT. And when his school counselor encouraged him to apply to the MSU College Assistance Migrant Program, or CAMP, he had no idea he would be graduating college and beginning a job to help migrant workers achieve higher education four years later.
http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2010/03/working_for_something_better
