News Releases

Election Reform Advocates Call on Texas Legislators to Abandon Controversial, Restrictive Voter Identification Proposals

Jun 15, 2010 | , ,

AUSTIN, TX – The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and a coalition of voting rights groups including Advocacy Inc, the ACLU of Texas, APIAVote, Asian American Action Fund, Asian American Justice Center, the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, Common Cause Texas, League of Women Voters of Texas, OCA Greater Houston Chapter, People For the American Way, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, Texans Together Education Fund, Texas AFL-CIO, Texas LULAC (HOPE), Texas NAACP, and the William C. Velasquez Institute called on the Texas Legislature to abandon the controversial voter identification policy proposal that resulted in a partisan stalemate during the 2009 Texas Legislative session.

MALDEF & Civil Rights Groups Ask Court to Block SB 1070 During Legal Battle

Jun 5, 2010 | ,

PHOENIX, AZ – Late Friday, MALDEF and a coalition of civil rights groups asked a federal court to block Arizona from implementing its controversial new law, known as SB 1070, pending a final court ruling on its constitutionality. The law requires police to demand ‘papers’ from people they stop who they suspect are “unlawfully present” in the U.S. According to the coalition, the law would subject massive numbers of people—both citizens and non-citizens— to racial profiling, improper investigations and detention.

MALDEF and Other Civil Rights Groups File Legal Challenge to Arizona Racial Profiling Law

May 17, 2010 | ,

PHOENIX, AZ – MALDEF and a coalition of civil rights groups filed a class action lawsuit today in a federal court in Phoenix challenging Arizona’s new law requiring police to demand “papers” from people they stop who they suspect are not authorized to be in the U.S. The extreme law, the coalition charged, invites the racial profiling of people of color, violates the First Amendment and interferes with federal law.