NHLA Releases 2016 Agenda to Advance Latino Community

Civil and Human Rights News 03.29,16

By Hope Kroll, a Spring 2016 Leadership Conference Education Fund Intern

In February, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), a coalition comprised of the nation’s 40 prominent Latino organizations, released their 2016 Hispanic Public Policy Agenda.

NHLA’s comprehensive agenda leads in addressing the Latino community’s civil and human rights needs and priorities in many issue areas that intersect with those of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, including immigration policy, education, economic security, voting rights, and criminal justice reform – to name a few.

Some of their policy recommendations include:

  • Provide deferred action to parents of DACA holders, and LGBTQ immigrants without children, who are not otherwise eligible for relief under DAPA;
  • Ensure that English proficiency for English Learners is a significant portion of every state’s accountability system and cross-tabulate data by race, gender, English Learner status, student with disability status, and economic disadvantage, so that disparities can be better identified, and interventions can be better tailored to the needs of the involved student groups;
  • Enact legislation that guarantees paid sick and family leave and support efforts to address income inequality, including pay discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and/or sex;
  • Restore the Voting Rights Act; and
  • Encourage Congress and the president to require employers to “ban the box” so that formerly incarcerated people have better chances to find permanent employment.

Learn more about NHLA’s recommendations and read the full agenda here.