Human Trafficking Still Increasing

Ingrid Cruz dreamed of being a teacher. A graduate of a prestigious university in the Philippines, she believed Lourdes Navarro wanted to help her get a job in the United States. In fact, Navarro was working with school administrators in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, to secure visas for Cruz and many other teachers, but Navarro charged them each approximately $16,000 for the service. Once in America, Navarro forced the teachers to sign over 10 percent of their salaries.

“We were thinking we had no choice,” Cruz told the Boston Globe. The teachers lived together in an apartment complex and paid Navarro rents well over market value. They aren’t alone. According to the Globe, documented cases of teacher trafficking have occurred in Baltimore and El Paso, Texas, as well.

The stories of trafficking are so compelling often because they are so shocking, grim reminders of the horrors lurking behind the American dream. Indeed, although the United States proudly calls itself the home of the free, the Polaris Project estimates that at least 100,000 children are engaged in the sex trade here each year. That number doesn’t include adults, and it doesn’t include anyone, like Cruz, trapped in a forced or exploitative labor situation.

Cruz and her fellow teachers, with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Federation of Teachers, sued Navarro and won a $4.5 million verdict on their claims of exploitative business practices. The trafficking claims against Navarro, however, were dismissed.

To read more about Human Trafficking today, click HERE.

Transgender Legislation

In July, the Legislature passed AB 1266 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and participate on sports teams that match the gender they feel identifies them.

The measure could not have passed without overwhelming Democratic dominance of the Legislature. It barely cleared the Senate and was approved by a small margin in the Assembly, where the speaker is gay.

“Transgender individuals have had to suffer through some of the worst indignities and personal problems of anybody in our society.” Speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles) told KNBC TV interviewer. “This bill is about making sure there is a place for (transgender) kids to fully participate in their schools.”

Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill.

Women Senators Lead the Charge

Even though their gender represents only 20 percent of the Senate, it was a bipartisan group of female senators who led the effort to end the government shutdown. Multiple reports, including praise from some of their male colleagues, credit Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Patty Murray (D-WA) with shaping the negotiations and working across party lines to address ideological concerns in settling the issue of reopening the government.

Hispanic Heritage Month

As Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15) comes to an end it behooves us to be aware of some of the struggles Hispanics have endured and continue to endure. The following story of segregation in California is instructive.

Sylvia Mendez and June Hernandez may have never met, but they had many things in common. Both were Mexican American girls who were just trying to attend school in Southern California. Instead of being allowed to go to the well-funded white schools in Orange County, they were sent to Mexican American public schools even when doing so required the girls to bus across the city or county. There were no laws in place that required school districts to segregate Mexican American children from white children — it was just the result of a shamefully ignorant community.

While many associate school desegregation with the 1952 Brown v. Board of Education case in Little Rock, Arkansas, few remember or are aware of the 1946 Orange County case Mendez v. Westminster School District. At age 9, Mendez became a part of a movement that was started by outraged families who were tired of the substandard education provided to Mexican American children. At the time, the Garden Grove Unified School District Superintendent James Kent testified that Mexican children were inferior in terms of hygiene, ability, and economic outlook. The Mendez case set a crucial precedent — that segregating schools by race was unconstitutional. Although the case only encompassed the school districts in that community, it would later serve as a precedent for other cases in California and for Brown v. Board of Education. Earl Warren, governor of California when Mendez v. Westminster was being argued, later became the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The language he used in Brown v. Board of Education resembled the language used in the ruling of Mendez v. Westminster.

Changes on Military “Chain of Command” Gains

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has secured more major support in her bid to change the way the military prosecutes sexual assault cases, despite last-minute intervention by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

The New York Democrat won over the Pentagon’s Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services on Friday just a few hours after Hagel met with the panel and urged it to delay a vote while more studies are done on her controversial legislation.

To read more, click HERE.