Blog of Rights
Maria
Archuleta
10/02/2009

Restore Fairness to the Immigration System

By Maria Archuleta, ACLU at 2:42pm

A new video, "Restore Fairness" produced by Breakthrough in association with 26 other organizations, including the ACLU, is part of a national campaign asking our government to restore fairness and due process to the broken immigration system.

The video's first segment features footage of congressional testimony by June Everett about the death of her sister, Sandra Kenley, after she was denied adequate medical care in immigration detention. In 2007, the ACLU interviewed Everett about her sister's death for this podcast.

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03/26/2009

Mobile County Agrees to Reintegrate Boys and Girls in Public Schools

By Maria Archuleta, ACLU at 3:35pm

On Tuesday night, Mobile County agreed to a settlement with the ACLU ending sex segregation in its public schools. That morning, the Mobile Press Register ran an editorial suggesting that the county’s public school system’s desperate need to improve is reason enough to test sex segregation on our children. But these programs are not only discriminatory, they are an empty promise for failing schools.

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03/16/2009

Immigrant Detention: The Human and Economic Costs

By Maria Archuleta, ACLU at 4:03pm

Most people don't know that in this country we lock up people without a trial or a hearing, sometimes for years. But this is the case for thousands of immigrants, many who have legal claim to remain in the country. This AP story, which quotes Judy Rabinovitz from our Immigrants' Rights Project, lays out the human and economic costs of detaining immigrants for prolonged periods of time.

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03/16/2009
Immigration Detention

The Least of These Documents ACLU Lawsuit

By Maria Archuleta, ACLU at 12:53pm

We’re very excited about the premiere today of the documentary film, The Least of These, a documentary film about the Hutto detention center at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

If you can’t make it down to Austin, you can watch it in its entirety for free online on SnagFilms, and it will also be available to educational institutions through Cinema Guild.

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07/17/2008

Don't Put the Cuffs On, It's Only Ranchera Music

By Maria Archuleta, ACLU at 12:57pm

There was some great Phoenix television of the ACLU lawsuit against anti-immigrant crusader Sheriff Joe Arpaio for racial profiling of Latinos in his so-called "crime suppression sweeps." In one clip, Manuel Nieto talks about what it felt like to see his son a

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05/01/2008

May Day, an American Holiday

By Maria Archuleta, ACLU at 2:59pm
Today is May Day and immigrants in New York, Chicago, Boston, Houston, Denver and in many other cities across the country are marching demanding immigrants' rights. It's fitting that this day that commemorates the Haymarket labor riots has for the last three years been chosen as the national day of mobilization for immigrant
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02/29/2008

The New Yorker Profiles Hutto Detention Facility

By Maria Archuleta, ACLU at 6:45pm
Check out this great New Yorker article that highlights how the ACLU's work drastically improved conditions for children incarcerated in the Hutto immigrant detention center in Texas. Maybe one day the government will stop detaining innocent children all together.

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