East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association

The EBLRLA board voted to endorse the California Immigrant Policy Center’s letter regarding immigration enforcement in California to the President and Congress.

Other signatories include:

• ACLU of Northern California
• ACLU of Southern California
• ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties
• American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) - San Diego Area Office
• American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) - Proyecto Campesino
• California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC)
• Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
• Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas en Norteamérica (COFEM)
• East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE)
• Federacion Zacatecana del Sur de California
• Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC)
• Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)
• National Immigration Law Center (NILC)
• Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network (SIREN).

For copies of the final letter, visit the California Immigrant Policy Center. When the letter is posted, we will link to it here.

The EBLRLA Board will meet next Thursday and invites you to attend a membership mixer

Thursday March 19
6:00-7:30pm
Cocina Poblana
499 Embarcadero West
(between Broadway & Jack London Sq)
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 451-4700
www.cocinapoblana.com/oak/index.htm

Centro Legal de La Raza will also cohost this mixer, and we especially invite the Berkeley La Raza Law Students Association and Latino Pre-Law Society.

Bring yourself, your friends and any mentees to learn more about the EBLRLA’s judiciary, mentorship and immigrant rights committees.

The EBLRLA board of directors voted today to join the 12/18/08 petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, authored by LatinoJustice / PRLDEF, which alleges violations of the human rights of Latinos by the United States. See generally http://www.latinojustice.org/civilrights/HumanRights/index.html.

The EBLRLA salutes the leadership of LatinoJustice / PRLDEF in deploying international human rights law to defend Latinas/os in the US and calls upon other social justice advocates to use the law creatively to deter the recent rise in hate crimes.

Join the EBLRLA, the American Constitution Society and other Latina/o civil rights organizations for a prescreening of the new documentary about Hernandez v. Texas, 347 U.S. 475 (1954), the landmark case that extended constitutional equal protection to Mexican Americans.

Thursday February 12, 2009
* 6:00pm Reception at Chevy’s Fresh Mex, 2 Embarcadero Center, SF
* 6:30pm Theater doors open
* Landmark Theatres, Embarcadero Center Cinema, One Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level, SF
* 7:00pm Film begins
* 8:00pm Discussion panel

Introductory remarks and the discussion panel will feature eminent Latina/o judges, professors and lawyers including:

• the Honorable Maria P. Rivera, Associate Justice, California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Four;
• Miguel Mendez, Adelberto H. Sweet Professor, Stanford Law School
• the Honorable Lorenzo Arredondo, Judge, Lake Circuit Court and co-author of “El Chicano y the Constitution: The Legacy of Hernandez v. Texas and Grand Jury Discrimination;
• Ignacio M. Garcia, Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr. Professor of Western & Latino History, Brigham Young University and author of White But Not Equal: Mexican Americans, Jury Discrimination and the Supreme Court;
• Ian F. Haney López, Professor of Law and Executive Committee Member, Center for Social Justice, Berkeley Law, and author of Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice and White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race; and
• Donato Tapia, Co-Chair, Oral History Project Committee, Hispanic National Bar Association.

Join us! Tickets cost $10 and are available online or in person by check only.

And if you know a student or community member who would like to attend but cannot afford the $10 ticket cost, have them contact the EBLRLA president, who along with EBLRLA member Luis Montes has offered to sponsor up to thirteen (13) free tickets.

The East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association has agreed to participate in Golden Gate University School of Law’s Annual Meet the Bar Associations event.

Monday, February 9th
5:15 - 6:15 pm
Golden Gate University
536 Mission Street
San Francisco

If you have a moment, please join us in recruiting future East Bay La Raza Lawyers — especially if you are a Golden Gate alum!