News & Commentary

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – ACLU/SC Executive Director Ramona Ripston, for decades one of the region’s most respected and outspoken voices on civil rights and civil liberties issues ranging from education and police reform to privacy, freedom of speech, and the rights of immigrants and homeless people, announced today that she will step down from the post she has held for 38 years.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The following statement is from Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California:

On Feb. 2, MALDEF, the ACLU of Southern California and the National Day Laborer’s Organizing Network (NDLON) announced a lawsuit challenging the City of Costa Mesa’s anti-solicitation ordinance as unconstitutional.

Immigrants who waited for years for their citizenship applications to be processed due to extraordinary backlogs will finally have the chance to become Americans and enjoy the privileges of citizenship, under the terms of a settlement announced today between the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the National Immigration Law Center, the ACLU of Southern California, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A U.S. citizen tortured and imprisoned for more than a year in the United Arab Emirates at the apparent behest of the United States government has been released and deported to Lebanon, where he will be reunited with his family.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A judge in the United Arab Emirates sentenced U.S. citizen Naji Hamdan to 18 months after finding him guilty of unspecified terrorism-related charges that stem from an apparent U.S.- orchestrated arrest and a coerced confession obtained under torture.

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NEW YORK – Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials today announced intentions to improve the nation's immigration detention system, including ending family detention at the T. Don Hutto family detention center in Taylor, TX.