Our immigration laws are out of whack. And they are clogging our federal prisons with nonviolent folks who are guilty of nothing more than living, working and raising families here without proper documentation.
A Pew Hispanic Center study released in mid-February documents how Latinos now make up 40 percent of the estimated 200,000 prisoners in federal penitentiaries, triple their share of the total U.S. adult population and disproportionate to their representation in state and local jails (19
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February 23, 2009 (Chicago, IL) – Today, Karma Yacht Sales, LLC initiated a grass roots campaign on behalf of the Marine Sailboat Dealers and Sailing Community of Illinois in speaking out against proposed bill (HB0451). The campaign seeks to educate Illinois lawmakers on the effect of the proposed bill and its impact to retail businesses. The proposed bill seeks to impose a five percent luxury tax on a broad range of consumer products including automobiles over $60,000, watercraft exceeding a co
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California Rep. Hilda Solis won Senate confirmation to be labor secretary on Tuesday, ending her rocky two-month nomination process.
Solis faced tough questioning from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in her confirmation hearing last month. Republicans on the committee pressed Solis on her support for controversial card check legislation and her connection to a union-backing organization. Throughout the process, Republicans expressed concern at what they said was her
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There's but one plausible explanation for the arrest of 24 Hispanic men by federal immigration agents outside a Fells Point convenience store in 2007 - racial profiling. A recently released videotape and government documents detailing the incident provide a vivid look at how easily law enforcement can run amok when officers are only interested in making their numbers look good.
The officers were agents of the U.S. Homeland Security Department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, and
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Each Wednesday inside a room in a Lake Avenue office building, Virginia Campos watches as about 40 Latina entrepreneurs come together.
They are bakers, unemployed women, home cleaners, business executives (like Campos), media consultants, bankers and accountants.
And they are all there for a reason: to understand how to make it on their own.
"That's right ... meda, it's a sisterhood," Campos said on a recent Wednesday, as she took a quick breather from the third annual "Emerging Latinas in Bu
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In Pasadena, nearly half of the total population and 80 percent of the school kids are Hispanic.
But Carmen Orozco is the first – and only – member of the Pasadena ISD Board.
On the Pasadena City Council, there are no Hispanics at all.
And that’s not uncommon in Houston’s suburbs.
In some cities around Houston where Hispanics make up 25 to 50 percent of the population, there is no one like them on their councils.
School boards have the same lack of representation. READ FULL STORY & VIEW VIDRead more…
In the five years she has lived in Fort Myers, attorney Kristyn Whitlow has seen myriad black professionals come and go.
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Whitlow said black professionals typically leave Fort Myers two or three years after relocating here.
"They look around, and they don't see any other black professionals and they leave," Whitlow said. "It's not uncomfortable for me because I'm used to being the only black, but I know it bothers other black professionals."
Many local black professionals claim
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The Hispanic population is growing rapidly, and census figures estimate that by 2025, Hispanics in Illinois will make up nearly 17 percent of the state’s population, a surge of more than 1.2 million people since 1995.
With that growth comes a demand for Hispanic businesses, as second and third generation families choose products and services that complement their culture.
Adrian Soto sees this shift first-hand. His parents were immigrants and he, like many other young Hispanic professionals, h
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Lecturing a conscript conclave of Justice Department bureaucrats, Attorney General Eric Holder called America a "nation of cowards" last week for not spending more time talking about race.
Reading his speech, however, one recalls the sage counsel of Pat Moynihan to President Richard Nixon in 1970: This whole subject might benefit from a long period of "benign neglect."
One point Holder did allude to, without specifics, was this: "It is not safe for this nation to assume that the unaddressed s
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Arizona State University was cited several times among the top 25 institutions in the United States in “The Condition of Latinos in Education: Fact Book 2008” by Excelencia in Education.
ASU was ranked number 24 among the top 25 colleges and universities enrolling Latinos during the 2006-07 academic year. The university also came in at number 24 for the top 25 institutions awarding bachelor’s degrees to Latinos.
In engineering, ASU was ranked 17th for the top 25 institutions awarding engineeri
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Open almost any urban newspaper to the foreclosure notices and you’ll find the list heavy with Hispanic names. Times are tough for Americans of every demographic, but for Latinos they are grimmer still.
Is this the end of the Latino-American Dream? The answer, in Spanish and English, is “no.”
President Obama has unveiled a $75 billion plan that includes helping homeowners who are behind in their monthly payments but could keep up if their mortgage terms were eased a bit. Many Latinos would fit
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Creating trust and assuring confidentiality are the biggest challenges facing the U.S. Census Bureau in gathering an accurate count of Latinos for the decennial population count next year.
Those were among the key points raised at a briefing on the 2010 census organized Wednesday by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in Washington, D.C. Latinos have been under-counted in previous census counts and efforts by LULAC and other national Latino organizations are aimed at making the
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Today's economy is putting a strain in many people's pocket books. Several Latino families are finding themselves cutting back on many expenses including their regular check ups at the doctor's office.
Maria Gonzalez watches her spending very closely. "It's a drastic change," said Gonzalez. READ FULL STORY & VIDEORead more…
A controversial new policy at the University of California will open the country's premier public university system to a wider array of applicants, creating campuses that could be less Asian and more white, with a few more blacks and a modest climb in the number of Latinos.
In overhauling its eligibility requirements, the UC has eliminated SAT "subject tests" and agreed to consider lower-ranking students. The plan would broaden the socioeconomic and racial diversity of the applicant pool and of
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When the economy goes sour, certain minority groups suffer at the hands of criminals more than others, a new study finds.
National crime statistics from 1973 to 2005 show an increase in violent, non-lethal crime against blacks and Latinos during and after periods of recession, according to research that was scheduled for presentation Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Chicago. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Vote paves the way for the Venezuela president to run again in 2012
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez won a referendum to eliminate term limits Sunday, enabling him to run again in 2012 and beyond in what critics fear is an attempt to become president-for-life.
Fireworks exploded in the sky and caravans of supporters celebrated in the streets, waving red flags and honking horns. Thousands of people gathered outside Miraflores Palace, where the former paratroop commander appeared on a
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CONTACT Marie Watteau
(202) 785-1670
STIMULUS PLAN BRINGS NEEDED RELIEF TO LATINO FAMILIES BUT NO PROMISE OF GOOD JOBS
Washington, DC – The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, today thanked the U.S. House of Representatives for passing a $789 billion economic stimulus package, but emphasized that effective implementation of this legislation will be critical to reaching Latino work
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During the 14 months after Oklahoma toughened its stance on illegal immigration, 2,441 illegal aliens in the state were turned over to federal authorities for possible deportation.
That's a fraction of the number of Hispanics who fled the state just before the law went into effect on Nov. 1, 2007, some say, with anecdotal estimates saying there was an exodus of 25,000 from Tulsa alone. READ FULL STORYRead more…
It has long been a truism here that if you didn’t have a job you weren’t looking too hard.
“It used to be in Dalton you could quit a job at 10 o’clock and have another job at 11,” said Rodger Keeter, a longtime barber downtown. In the 1980s, Dalton drew residents from Kentucky looking for work after the coal mines closed. The past 15 years have seen an influx of Hispanics. READ FULL STORYRead more…
A new interactive online tool can help older Americans assess their risk for developing colon cancer. The catch is that it only works for whites.
That’s too bad, since blacks are at higher risk than whites for colorectal cancer, developing it and dying of it at higher rates, and recent reports suggest the racial gap is widening.
The new screening tool, developed by the National Cancer Institute and available at www.cancer.gov/colorectalcancerrisk, asks roughly 20 questions, the first two about
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