Mary Bauer, legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the Obama administration’s announcement Friday to delay deporting young immigrants is a positive step, but against a backdrop of anti-immigrant sentiment and harsh laws in many states, much more remains to be done.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and its allies asked the Tennessee Supreme Court today to block an agreement between Nashville and federal authorities that violates state and local laws by allowing the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office to enforce immigra¬tion law.
School officials in Savannah, Tenn., in response to a letter from the Southern Poverty Law Center, have recognized the right of students to express acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, including the right to display slogans and symbols expressing such acceptance.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Children’s Services filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) for discriminating against Latino students with Spanish-speaking parents.
North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System denied Spanish-speaking parents the opportunity to participate in their children’s education. The school system provided school notices, such as notices of long-term suspensions and special education materials, in English to English-speaking parents but failed to provide this information to Spanish-speaking parents in Spanish – discriminating against these students and violating state and federal law. The Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Children’s Services, a project of Legal Aid of North Carolina, filed a complaint against the school district with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. This complaint resulted in the school district agreeing to develop a plan to ensure Spanish-speaking parents have the opportunity to participate in their child’s education.