The SPLC issued a statement today in response to the efforts by immigration reform opponents to exploit the Boston Marathon bombings in an effort to derail reform legislation.

 

 

With today's introduction of a bipartisan immigration bill in the U.S. Senate aimed at overhauling the nation’s broken immigration system, the Southern Poverty Law Center called for immigration reform that protects the human and civil rights of low-skill workers.

 

The Southern Poverty Law Center joined poultry workers, advocates and others gathered outside U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt’s district office in Gadsden, Ala., today to urge him to block new poultry industry regulations that threaten the health and safety of workers and consumers across the country.

The SPLC today urged Alabama’s top public school official to address the widespread failure of schools and districts to comply with state and federal law when they request Social Security numbers for enrollment – a practice that chills enrollment of immigrant students in public schools.

Responding to complaints of pervasive anti-LGBT harassment at the Moss Point School District in Mississippi, the SPLC today demanded that school officials act to protect LGBT students or face a federal lawsuit. 

Though lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students are harassed at twice the rate of other students, a few purposeful steps can help transform a school into a safer place for all students, according to a guide released today by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project.

Alabama’s high poverty rate and lax regulatory environment make it a “paradise” for predatory lenders that intentionally trap the state’s poor in a cycle of high-interest, unaffordable debt, according to a new SPLC report that includes recommendations for reforming the small-dollar loan industry.  

The SPLC asked a federal court today to block a section of the Defense of Marriage Act that bars the federal government from providing veterans’ benefits to legally married same-sex couples.

 

In a motion for summary judgment, the SPLC urged the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to declare as unconstitutional Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act and two other statutes that prohibit the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

As Congress debates comprehensive immigration reform, lawmakers should not look to the current federal guestworker program – a program rife with labor and human rights violations – as a model for handling the future flow of low-wage foreign workers, according to an SPLC report released today.

 

Close to Slavery has been updated to include changes to the program during the past six years as well as new stories of the abuse that persists. Since its initial release, Close to Slavery has become the definitive assessment of the modern H-2 guestworker program.

Stacy Dawson, an openly gay junior at Scott County Central High School in Missouri, simply wants to attend the school prom this spring with his boyfriend. But his school, like many others across the country, prohibits same-sex couples from attending dances together. 

The SPLC today urged the school to rescind its policy, calling it an unconstitutional infringement on Dawson’s right to free expression under the First Amendment.