Immigrants’ Rights

MALDEF strives to ensure all immigrants receive fair treatment under the law, and works to combat discriminatory policies in the private and public sectors.

Protecting Immigrants’ Rights

Throughout our history, we’ve been on the frontlines of some of the most important legal battles to protect immigrants’ rights, taking on unconstitutional federal, state, and local measures including California’s Proposition 187, Arizona’s SB 1070, and more recent restrictions in Texas in SB 4. We’ve challenged unlawful detention and raids, fought to protect the right of day laborers to seek work, and defended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative that offers temporary relief to young immigrants brought to this country as children.

Today, MALDEF continues to work to eliminate barriers that prevent immigrants from achieving full integration into society, and to target private anti-immigrant discriminators as well.

Immigrants’ Rights

MALDEF SEEKS TO INTERVENE ON BEHALF OF STUDENTS TO DEFEND KENTUCKY TUITION POLICY

FRANKFORT, KY – A Latino civil rights organization has filed a motion to intervene in a federal-government lawsuit seeking to eliminate the regular tuition rates paid by most students in Kentucky for students without lawful immigration status living in Kentucky, according to papers filed in federal court Friday. Kentucky is among four states whose duly-enacted tuition laws have now been challenged by the Trump administration.

FEDERAL COURT DENIES PROPERTY COMPANY’S MOTION TO DISMISS IN HOUSING DISCRIMINATION CASE

NEW JERSEY — A federal court has denied a motion to dismiss filed by two defendants in a housing discrimination lawsuit challenging their policy of refusing to rent to recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and other immigrants based solely on immigration status.  One of the three defendants, Inverness Apartments, LLC, was dismissed with the possibility of being renamed if evidence shows it is complicit in the discrimination by the other defendants.