SPLC Reports Latinos Under Siege in Southern States

Published April 21, 2009 @ 09:37PM PT

The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report today detailing the systemic discrimination and exploitation Latin@ migrants face today in the South.

In Tennessee, a young mother is arrested and jailed when she asks to be paid for her work in a cheese factory.

In Alabama, a migrant bean picker sees his life savings confiscated by police during a traffic stop.

In Georgia, a rapist goes unpunished because his 13-year-old victim is undocumented.

. . .

[Latin@s] are routinely cheated out of their earnings and denied basic health and safety protections. They are regularly subjected to racial profiling and harassment by law enforcement. They are victimized by criminals who know they are reluctant to report attacks. And they are frequently forced to prove themselves innocent of immigration violations, regardless of their legal status.

Roberto Lovato has dubbed this phenomenon Juan Crow, highlighting the similarities of this system to the previous network of social norms, law enforcement priorities, and economic abuses that kept Southern blacks poor and powerless under the Jim Crow regime of official disenfranchisement.

For this report, Southern Poverty Law Center researchers surveyed 500 low-income Latinos - including legal residents, undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens - at five locations in the South to take the pulse of a community that is being increasingly driven into the shadows by a sweeping anti-immigration movement.

We found a population under siege and living in fear - fear of the police, fear of the government and fear of criminals who prey on immigrants because of their vulnerability.

This mirrors my experiences representing undocumented migrants in two of the most migrant-friendly cities in the country: New York City and Philadelphia. I would not want to be undocumented in Alabama or Tennessee.

There's more on the SPLC report from Immigration Impact.

Share this Post

Comments (3)

In Elizabeth N.J. I was told there was a disgusting cheese factory that tells women that they must continue working ASAP even though they have gotten burnt badly at the job. I heard these woman have scars on them from working in these cheese factory's and they are only paid 5 dollars an hour and that the working conditions are so in-humane. Can you imagine...now they are getting away with paying people the 5 dollars an hour. What next? Its time for Unions to step in.

This is what happens when employers are given an access to cheap labor..an underground workforce that lives in fear and is not protected by labor laws.

The anti's are hurting their fellow Americans and society by putting off immigration reform. I have to ask this question...Do the anti's own the cheese factory's? The prison systems? Anyone who wanted to fix the problem would want to Secure the Borders...Bring all the workers out of the shadows and fix the broken legal immigration system so that the flow at the border would stop. Anyone who oppose's the problem must be making money off it.

I am convinced that people who actively oppose CIR benefit somehow by the underground undocumented immigrants...because they know that the vast majority will never be deported. So what is up with that? They talk about values...but the truth is the have no values when it comes to their fellow Americans on this issue because they have no normal solution and they have no values when it comes to Civil Rights.

We have had a broken immigration system for over 20 years..and we still have the same rhetoric and useless deportation prisons that are in-humane, breakup American family's and rob Americans in tax dollars. When is there going to be a common sense solution!

Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 04/23/2009 @ 06:43PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- 1 person likes this comment. Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Mary
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
I am struck by the irony behind this sad state of affairs. Many Americans appear to think that, because we've elected our first African-American president, we've somehow entered a new "post-racial" era. Yet, it's painful to see just how little progress we've really made since the civil rights era. As always, Roberto Lovato shakes the tree of our complacency to reveal the truth: we've merely succeeded in substituting "Juan Crow" for the Jim Crow. Yet, silence and willful amnesia still characterize this nation's response to the human tragedies going on all around us, much to our shame. Thank you for sharing that article (an old favorite) and the report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Plus ca change...

Posted by a d on 04/23/2009 @ 07:28PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- 1 person likes this comment. Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by a
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply
PJ.,It looks like some of the "wealthy and well connected" have gotten an awful large piece of the pie.

Maybe the murder rate has something to do with the huge population of low waged workers that are stuffed into those small counties? They happen to be of all different ethnic backgrounds and status, and most of them happen to be the citizens of our country. Did you forget to mention the popular vote and the electoral college. The amount of land owned by the rich does not represent the citizens of America. As a matter of fact...the majority of middle class and upper middle class are struggling and alot of them have lost their jobs and they put faith in the "wealthy and well connected" and their trickle down economics.

Welfare, Well considered the fact that you are for ripping fathers away from there US born children and wives and want to stop children from further education suggests that the welfare system could get worse. Doesn't it makes sense to let people better themselves and work jobs.

The "wealthy and well connected"...Do you think that these are the taxpayers of America? Correct me if I'm wrong..but didn't they get huge tax cuts under the Bush administration? and they also cashed in on alot of social program money "government contracts" to expand their corporations. I thought we were living in a democracy and that our crony's were investing our dollars wisely so that we could all benefit from the American system. You see, the "wealthy and well connected" were living in our democracy but they were enjoying my tax dollars..in their own little socialism. Wow! They convinced me that social programs were bad; but they reap the benefits of them. I worked hard and stood in between poor that lived depressed on welfare and the rich that lived lavishly on welfare. I guess that is why our country sought after CHANGE. We realised it was time to claim our country back.

The undocumented could be the last opportunity to gain some votes..but you continue to blow it by calling them silly names like invaders.

I know what the debate of CIR is all about. Its not about the "rule of law" and its not about the vast majority of your fellow Americans.

CIR is about sharing a piece of the American pie with the vast majority of your fellow American citizens because it belongs to all of the citizens and it is time for the "wealthy and well connected" to pay back the taxdollars that they stole from all the hard working citizens of this country.

CIR could be your last chance to manipulate some votes if you were wise and did not oppose it..but I think you already blew it. The truth is you already lost with the hard working majority of American citizens of our country.

Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 04/24/2009 @ 05:38PM PT
- Report close
  You must be signed in to report content.
- Reply
- Like
For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment. In the process we will also create a Change.org account for you so you can track this and future conversations. Don't worry - we won't spam you. We just want to promote constructive dialogue and find that people are more respectful when they are not anonymous.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

reply to thread started by by Mary
Check Spelling
- Email me when there are new posts to this thread
- Comment Policy
Cancel Reply

Add a Comment

For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

Comment

Check Spelling

Email me when there are new posts to this thread
Comment Policy

Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.

Author

David is an attorney in Philadelphia, PA, where he helps immigrants to the U.S. navigate the complex immigration legal system. Views he expresses at change.org are his alone and don't represent the views or opinions of his employer, Nationalities Service Center. The information contained on this site is intended for educational and advocacy purposes only.