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Friend, Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! Hispanic Heritage Month lasts from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 and celebrates the history, culture, and contributions of Hispanic and Latinx Americans. America’s Hispanic and Latinx communities, whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America, are boundlessly diverse, and this month commemorates important independence anniversaries for El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico and Chile. Dia de la Raza, or Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which falls on Oct. 11, is also a part of Hispanic Heritage Month. At the SPLC, we are reminded of our continuing mission to not only honor our Hispanic and Latinx communities, but to seek justice for them as well. The struggle for justice and equity is intersectional, and the work we do in each of our key issue areas contributes to the fight. This summer, the SPLC called for a powerful reimagining of our national conversation surrounding immigration. During the past four years, the United States has abandoned its domestic and international obligations to provide access to the asylum process and largely dismantled the infrastructure to process asylum claims. Some restrictive asylum policies enacted by the previous administration are still in place. Read more here to learn how you can contribute to building a fair, humane immigration system that works for everyone. Hate and extremism have a devastating impact on Hispanic and Latinx communities. This year, the FBI reported the second-highest number of anti-Hispanic hate crimes recorded since 2010. The SPLC also reported a disturbing relationship between antigovernment militia groups in Arizona and some Border Patrol agents. Messages posted to an antigovernment militia group’s Telegram channel show how several militia groups have stopped, interrogated and siphoned migrants into the hands of Border Patrol agents. Read more here. Although immigrant justice is an important part of this work, Hispanic and Latinx Americans have been here for generations, and some communities have historically occupied parts of the U.S. before the founding of our country. Many Hispanic and Latinx Americans do not identify as immigrants. However, systemically unjust, racist and discriminatory policies harm both immigrant and non-immigrant Hispanic and Latinx communities. Today, roughly 2.2 million people are behind bars in the United States, an increase of 1.9 million since 1972. We have the world’s largest prison population – with one-quarter of its prisoners but just 5% of the total population. This broken system disproportionately impacts Black and Brown people, as well as immigrants. Hispanic and Latinx communities are often criminalized, exploited and imprisoned through economic policies that disproportionately affect Black and Brown people. Our Economic Justice Project is fighting back against deeply ingrained policies and practices that exploit or punish the poor simply because of their economic status. You can read more about the SPLC’s criminal justice reform work here, and our economic justice work here. Equitable access to education is a crucial aspect of racial and immigrant justice, and removing police from schools is an important step towards creating classrooms where all students are safe and valued. You can learn more about why and how schools are changing their policies here. The SPLC’s guide to help families and advocates of immigrant children defend a student’s right to a public education is another important resource for educators, students and their families. The SPLC’s Learning for Justice program recently released the first issue of their new magazine, which covers language accessibility, community-based school safety and more opportunities to build more equitable schools. Thank you for taking the time to learn about Hispanic Heritage Month and how you can be a part of the movement for racial, immigrant and economic justice. We appreciate your ongoing commitment to our work to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people. In solidarity, Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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