Trial Continues in Arizona on Ethnic Studies Ban – Court hearings resume next week in Phoenix in a legal challenge to a state law banning a Mexican-American Studies program in the Tucson School District five years ago. The law prohibited the teaching of hundreds of books by authors such as Sandra Cisneros and Isabel Allende. State representatives who promoted the law said Mexican-American Studies would promote the overthrow of the U.S. government and social resentment, claims that are now being called unconstitutional and discriminatory. Valeria Fernández spoke with two women who graduated from the program.
Oregon to Offer Healthcare to Undocumented Children – Oregon’s House of Representatives approved legislation last week called “Cover All Kids,” a program that would provide medical services to the more than 17,000 undocumented children estimated to be living in the state. This victory came thanks to a broad coalition that included healthcare companies that agreed to pay a state tax to cover the costs. With Democratic Governor Kate Brown’s signature, Oregon is set to become the seventh state to broaden coverage for immigrant children. Rubén Tapia has this report.
Criminal Justice System Revives Old Racial Segregation Codes – The best-selling book, The New Jim Crow, argues that the U.S. criminal justice system reproduces the caste-like system of racial segregation known as “Jim Crow laws.” Using the war on drugs to justify cracking down on crime and carrying out mass deportation, successive government administrations have filled the prisons and detention centers with African-Americans and Latinos, permanently relegating them to the status of second-class citizens. An introduction to the newly released Spanish-language version of the book, entitled El Color de la Justicia, was written by Juan Cartagena, national president of LatinoJustice. Marco Vinicio González has the details from New York.
