 |
LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS National Office |
2000 L Street, NW, Suite 610 PRESS RELEASE |
| For Immediate Release June 29, 2002 |
Contact: Lorraine Quiroga |
Houston, TX - The 73rd Annual LULAC National Convention concluded its weeklong events by extending to its members the opportunity to be active citizens and participate with their vote in creating LULAC's 2002-2003 Legislative Platform, and over 40 separate resolutions, that will further advance educational and economic opportunities and work toward guaranteeing basic civil rights for all Hispanics on U.S. soil.
Many concerns were voiced over the course of the Convention and the LULAC Membership adopted a legislative platform to accurately reflect these concerns. Some of the issues that LULAC will focus on in the next year include education, immigration, farm & migrant workers, criminal justice reform, affirmative action, racial profiling, healthcare, citizenship and voting, Hispanic representation in government and hate crimes.
"Each of these issues has been brought forward by LULAC members who are facing difficult civil rights challenges in their individual communities from one side of the U.S. to the other," said Hector Flores, newly elected LULAC National President. "Our job now is to prioritize these and other concerns that need our immediate attention and we will not relent until they are resolved."
Education continues to be a primary focus for the organization, as LULAC believes that education is the basis for lifelong success. One in five Hispanics in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24 left American schools without either a high school diploma or an alternative certificate such as a GED according to the US Census Bureau. Latinos remain the most likely to drop out, the most likely to be found in large, urban, high poverty schools, and the least likely to enroll in college. LULAC supports legislation targeted at decreasing the Hispanic dropout rate and urges Congress to implement programs that encourage Hispanics to continue their education.
With regard to immigration, LULAC will continue to support actions to regulate undocumented workers in the U.S. but opposes any legislation that threatens the rights of immigrants, including limiting legal immigration. It opposes the militarization of the U.S./Mexico border and opposes the use of local and state law enforcement to assist the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to enforce immigration policy. The INS instead, LULAC states, should focus its service efforts on naturalization, citizenship promotion and the training of its own agents, including the Border Patrol.
Other issues that LULAC has reaffirmed its support of include affirmative action as a set of positive steps to promote equal employment opportunities, the promotion of Hispanic voter participation, the prevention of discrimination and racial profiling, bilingual education, universal healthcare insurance, accessible primary and preventative health care that is culturally sensitive, fair welfare reform, protecting the quality of life for our nation's senior citizens and measures that will assure the stability and access of social security.
New to the platform are specific measures addressing the rights of farm and migrant workers specifically calling for the restoration of $82 million that were previously cut from the U.S. Department of Labor 's budget. The National Farmworker Jobs Program (WIA 167) which provides affordable housing, skills and pesticide safety training and basic adult education, suffered from these budget cuts. LULAC will call on Congress to pass legislation that protects farmworkers from employer abuse, while guaranteeing them safe working conditions, housing and access to schooling and training. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the majority of farmworkers, 81 percent, are foreign born with 95 percent of those indicating Mexico as their native country. Forty-two percent of all U.S. farmworkers maintain their permanent home outside of the U.S.
Additionally, LULAC has officially added a clause calling for the reform of the criminal justice system to reduce the disproportionate number of Latinos who are incarcerated in the criminal and juvenile justice systems. Latino communities, and youth in particular, are increasingly singled out by the criminal justice system. According to Building Blocks for Youth, Latino youth in Los Angeles are arrested 2.3 times more often than white non-Hispanic youth. Latino youth were prosecuted as adults 2.4 times as often as white non-Hispanic youth and imprisoned 7.3 times more often than white non-Hispanic youth for similar offenses. There are more young Latino males in the penal system than in the school system.
To help bring the 2002-2003 Legislative Platform to life, the LULAC Membership elected the following Latino leaders to head its national board:
National President, Hector Flores of Dallas, Texas
National Treasurer, Frank Ortiz of Houston, Texas
VP for the Northeast, Laura Medrano of Boston Massachussetts
VP for the Southwest, Rosa Rosales of San Antonio, Texas
VP for the Southeast, Elsie Valdes of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico
VP for the Far West, Richard Fimbres of Tucson, Arizona
VP for the Midwest, Blanca Vargas of Cicero, Illinois
VP for Youth, Fernando Escabi of San Juan, Puerto Rico
VP for Young Adults, Juan Garcia of Houston, Texas
VP for Women, Vera Marquez of Garden Grove, California
VP for the Elderly, Desi Persina of Houston, Texas
In addition to adopting a national agenda and election of the new national board, the LULAC electorate voted to hold the 2005 LULAC National Convention in Little Rock, Arkansas. The growth of the Hispanic population has not only occurred in those states bordering Mexico, but also in the Southern and Midwestern regions of the U.S. The 2000 Census reports that Arkansas experienced explosive growth of its Hispanic community totaling 337 percent. Tyson Foods, one of the largest Hispanic employers in Arkansas, has already announced its support with a $125,000 sponsorship for the 2005 Convention in Little Rock.
"Tyson Foods is fortunate to have a workforce made up
of people with backgrounds as diverse as the cultural spectrum
that makes up our country," said Bob Corscadden, Tyson Foods
Senior Vice President. "We will continue to support efforts
that work toward increasing educational and economic opportunities
for our community."
The Convention held the week of June 23-29, which achieved record
attendance this year, hosted more than 8,000 Hispanic political,
community and business leaders from across the nation. LULAC's
Expo featured more than 150 corporations and federal agencies
that exhibited their products and services.
Planning for the 2003 LULAC National Convention and Exposition
is already underway and more information will be released as soon
as a definite location has been determined.
For more information on LULAC or how to start or join a chapter in your local area please call the LULAC National Office at 202-833-6130.
With approximately 115,000 members throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC is the largest and oldest Hispanic Organization in the United States. LULAC advances the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide. LULAC councils provide more than half a million dollars in scholarships to Hispanic students each year, conduct citizenship and voter registration drives, develop low income housing units, conduct youth leadership training programs, and seek to empower the Hispanic community at the local, state and national levels. For more information about LULAC and its programs please visit www.lulac.org.