Voting Rights, Consumer Lending, Educational Achievement, Access to Courts in Miami’s Latino Community

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 12, 2011 — Local and national Latino leaders, activists and advocates will convene in Miami for the American Bar Association Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities hearing, May 20, at Miami Dade College. Testimonies from this hearing —the third of its kind — will be used to engage in discussion and develop policy recommendations affecting the legal landscape for Latinos across the country.  Future hearings are planned for Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles.

Commission members from across the country will join commission Chair Cesar L. Alvarez, ABA President Stephen N. Zack and Miami Dade College President Dr. Eduardo Padron at this event.

WHO
ABA Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities

WHAT
Regional hearing on the state of Latinos in Miami and the United States

Topics include:

• Transnational Latino communities
• Voting rights
• Migrant workers and trafficking victims
• Barriers to accessing the courts
• Educational attainment of Latino students
• Consumer lending and small businesses

WHEN
May 20
9 a.m. — 1:30 p.m.

WHERE
Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus
Room 3210, Chapman Conference Center
300 Northeast 2nd Avenue, Bldg. 3, 2nd Floor
Miami

* Confirmed panelists include:

Raquel “Raquelita” Regalado, Miami-Dade County Schools – District 6 – speaking about educational attainment of Latino students from the perspective of a community activist/elected official;

Jorge Mursuli, president and CEO, Democracia USA – speaking about Latino voters and the next election cycle in light of the new census numbers;

Alan Pascal, president, Broward County Hispanic Bar Association – speaking on judicial elections and their impact on Latino voters;

Monica Ramirez, Southern Poverty Law Center – speaking about Latina migrant workers in the food industry, and the SPLC report, Injustice on Our Plates;

Michelle Ortiz, director, LUCHA Project, Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center – speaking on human trafficking/sex trade in the coastal region;

Robert Parks, ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid & Indigent Defendants – Previewing the committee’s proposed standards for language access in the courts;

Roberto Cruz, Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Inc. – Speaking about predatory lending practices and the impact on the Latino community in central Florida.

This event is free and open to members of the press. For further schedule details or to request an interview, please contact Kristin.Loiacono@Americanbar.org or call her at 202/662-1092.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

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