From April 29 to May 3,  Members of Congress will be in-district and need to hear from you that just immigration reform is a top priority. During these visits, let your representatives that we need a strong, inclusive ban on racial profiling in immigration reform legislative. Join the immigrant rights movement mobilizing acoss the country at this important time, and get these key Rights Working Group messages out.

RESOURCES

Many think of racial profiling as a relatively recent problem that manifested in the 1980s when news of African Americans being pulled over for "driving while black" began making national headlines. The problem, however, dates back centuries and is a fairly recent manifestation of discriminatory conduct by law enforcement and the criminal justice system that dates back to at least the 1700s in the United States for people of African descent.

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 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Some 200 advocates living in border communities descended  on Capitol Hill earlier this week to send a strong message to Congress: “We need better borders, not more border enforcement.”

This second installment of the Faces of Racial Profiling series tells the story of Jesus Martinez, whose mentally impaired son, Alex, was killed by border patrol agents in 2011 in the state of Washington.
 
The story Jesus tells reveals the racial profiling that happens in border communities around language. Border patrol agents showed up at Jesus’ home simply because he called 911 for assistance for his son and spoke in Spanish.
 
Jesus is still seeking justice and an independent investigation into the death of his son.
 

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 Less than a month ago, a bipartisan group of eight senators working on comprehensive immigration reform legislation released their principles for immigration reform, which are broad goals for what they hope to accomplish.
 
Although the principles recognized the broken immigration system and endorsed a path to citizenship, some of their recommendations were deeply troubling to many immigrants rights, human rights and civil rights groups.