Immigrants Seek to Expunge their Records to Avoid Deportation – Immigrants in California are beginning to benefit from Proposition 47, a measure approved by voters more than two years ago that reduces penalties for certain non-serious, nonviolent crimes. With some offenses changing from felonies to misdemeanors, many immigrants may avoid deportation. Rubén Tapia reports on the assistance some are receiving to expunge their criminal record, as well as calls for sanctuary cities to reform their criminal justice systems. This story is part of the series Speaking of Race, sponsored in part by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Is the Newly Freed Puerto Rican Nationalist a Hero? In New York, it’s a Debate – The Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera, recently released after serving 36 years in prison for alleged sedition, was chosen to head the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York and honored as a Hero of National Freedom. This distinction has unleashed a political firestorm and a boycott by some of the parade’s prominent commercial sponsors. López Rivera commented on the controversy surrounding this year’s parade in a recent interview. Marco Vinicio González reports from New York.
U.S. Leaders Condemn a Wave of Assassinations of Mexican Journalists – The veteran reporter Javier Valdez was recently assassinated in Mexico, becoming the seventh journalist killed in that country so far this year. Valdez’s death generated widespread denunciation and protests due to the international acclaim he earned during his career, spent investigating drug trafficking and its links with high-raking politicians and businesspeople. U.S. Congress members Norma Torres and Raul Grijalva said that assassinations of journalists in Mexico is a serious problem, one they plan to address in conversations with their Mexican counterparts. For her part, Martha Montoya, the president of the National Association of Hispanic Publications, also condemned Valdez’s assassination and the flight of journalists due to violence in Mexico.
