News & Commentary

In a major decision, a U.S. district court has ruled that federal officials must provide representation for two men with severe mental disabilities while they fight their deportation cases.

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act – more commonly known as the DREAM Act – is once again in the national spotlight. Introduced in 2001 and again in 2007, the DREAM Act provides a path to citizenship for undocumented students who complete two years of college or military service. It is a sensible, humane proposal that has long enjoyed bi-partisan support, but hasn’t quite passed into law despite the obvious enhancements it would provide to our economy and national security.We bring you the voices of three California youth holding out for their DREAM.

  On a cold October morning, hundreds of high school students from the Central Valley crowded into the Fresno Court of Appeals for "outreach day," an event designed to increase public understanding of the court system. For many of them this wasn't just another field trip. That morning, the California Supreme Court was scheduled to hear oral arguments for Martinez v. UC Regents, an effort by anti-immigrant forces to deny undocumented youth access to in-state college tuition rates. I was there with members of the Orange County DREAM Team, sitting behind the defense table in full view of all nine justices, anxiously watching the nation's all-too virulent immigration battle try to claim a new beachhead, that of college campuses.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California strongly urges Congress to take action and vote to pass the DREAM Act.

LOS ANGELES -- Hector Villagra has been named to succeed Ramona Ripston as executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, becoming the first Latino to hold the post.

SACRAMENTO – Today the California Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Assembly Bill 540 which allows students who attend at least three years of high school in California and who graduate from a California high school (or receive their GED) to qualify for in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities, regardless of their immigration status. The Court found that federal law did not bar California from offering in-state tuition to all students who meet these requirements.

The ACLU of Southern California is deeply concerned by federal agents’ abrupt decision to detain and initiate deportation proceedings against an immigrant worker who filed a federal class action lawsuit against a Fullerton-based firm in August for labor and civil rights violations.

Sandra Hernandez is communications director for the ACLU of Southern California.

(Los Angeles) The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California today called on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to vote “no” on renewing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s (LASD) fundamentally-flawed 287(g) agreement with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency – originally adopted in 2005.