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generic cialis? Articles Tagged ‘Policy and Legislative Advocacy’

Overview

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico Foundation (ACLU-NM) seeks a full-time Policy Advocate to join the staff of the Regional Center for Border Rights (RCBR) in Las Cruces, NM. The RCBR primarily addresses civil and human rights violations that stem from immigration policies in the border region. It also supports the ACLU-NM’s broader mission of defending general civil liberties, from free speech, to religious liberty, to equality for same-sex couples, among many other issues.

The Policy Advocate’s primary responsibility is to develop and implement advocacy strategies to improve border enforcement policies and practices. The position also supports the ACLU-NM’s broader civil liberties mission. The Policy Advocate’s work involves data gathering and research; forming alliances with strategic partners; mobilizing constituent support; lobbying government officials and legislative bodies; and representing the ACLU‐NM in public forums.

Founded in 1962, the ACLU-NM is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization which uses legal, legislative and public education approaches to protect and promote individual rights and freedoms, including free speech, racial justice, privacy, religious liberty, reproductive rights, LGBT rights, and more. The ACLU-NM is an affiliate of the national ACLU, the leading defender of civil liberties guaranteed by our nation’s Bill of Rights. The ACLU-NM has offices in Albuquerque and Las Cruces and a staff of 14 people. It has 5,000 members across the state and an annual budget of $1.3 million.

The Policy Advocate works under the supervision of the Director of the Regional Center for Border Rights and in close collaboration with the ACLU-NM’s legal, development, policy advocacy and communications staff.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement advocacy strategies to effect change by local, state and federal policymakers on immigration and border enforcement and other civil liberties issues.  This includes representing the RCBR in direct conversations with policymakers, such as state legislators, Congressional delegates, White House staff, etc.
• Monitor border enforcement developments that have potential consequences for civil liberties. This includes policy research and analysis designed to promote change in administrative agencies and local policymaking.
• Monitor conditions of confinement in immigrant detention facilities and ensure due process for immigrant detainees.
• Collaborate with other ACLU-NM staff and other ACLU offices to protect and advance civil liberties. This includes responding to requests for information and assistance from ACLU affiliates and national offices on immigration and border-related policy.
• Monitor and analyze local, state, and federal legislation, regulations, and other policies related to the civil rights of border and immigrant communities.
• Research, write and edit policy and advocacy materials, including public policy reports, issue briefs, letters, press statements, opinion editorials, action alerts, and talking points related to ACLU’s policy work.
• Assist in ongoing outreach activities to monitor civil and human rights in communities in southern New Mexico, including support of the legal team’s litigation efforts, drafting public records requests and analyzing responses.
• Build and nurture effective multi-organizational coalitions and alliances on priority issues and campaigns; this may include work to build grassroots capacity in support of legislative and policy priorities.
• Community outreach and public speaking, including representing ACLU positions to policy- and lawmaking bodies, the media, and the general public.
• Perform work on other projects as needed.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated commitment to the ACLU mission and principles of the ACLU and a broad range of civil liberties and civil rights issues, particularly individual liberties, racial justice, criminal justice, and immigration.
• A Bachelor’s degree; a JD, social work or other advanced degree is preferred but not required.
• At least 3 years of relevant work experience in political, policy, legal, or government settings. Experience with constitutional issues, immigration detention, legislation and community outreach is preferred.
• Ability to keep organized in a fast-paced environment, to manage several projects simultaneously, and to adjust to frequently changing demands.
• Demonstrated commitment to work in diverse communities; bilingual Spanish/English required.
• Excellent research and analytic skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills including the ability to write and speak persuasively to diverse audiences, including lawyers, advocates, funders, and opinion leaders.
• Ability to analyze and articulate legal concepts and other complex issues and to communicate them to the public; a “quick study” on a dynamic array of issues.
• A commitment to diversity; a personal approach that values the individual and respects differences of race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability and socioeconomic circumstance.
• Creative, result-oriented, self-starting, and willing to learn.
• A team player that inspires collaboration and functions decisively; flexible and well organized.
• Emotionally mature and self‐confident, with a sense of humor in order to maintain balance and perspective.
• Proficiency in Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, Word, and Outlook, and ability to prepare graphic presentations and conduct internet research.
• Able to work evenings and weekends and travel when necessary.

Compensation and Benefits

Salary based on experience. Excellent benefits include paid vacation, medical and dental insurance, 401k plan, life and long‐term disability insurance, and generous paid holidays.

To Apply

Please send a letter of interest (with salary requirements), resume, and three references by email to HR@aclu-nm.org  Please indicate in your letter of interest where you learned of this career opportunity.  Applications will be accepted until the position is filled but preference will be given to applications received by March 24, 2012.

The ACLU-NM is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and encourages applications from all qualified individuals including women, people of color, persons with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals.

Stand up for reproductive freedom on Monday, January 23rd, 2:30 pm at the New Mexico State Capitol Building in Santa Fe. Supporters will meet inside in the Rotunda where it’s warm! To maximize visibility, wear pro-choice t-shirts, buttons and stickers! No signs are allowed inside the Capitol.

Today the national ACLU released a video featuring Ruthell Frank, an 81 year-old woman living in Brokaw, Wisconsin, a tiny hamlet of just over 100 people. Ruthelle has been voting in elections since 1948 and serves on the village board. But since the Republican controlled Wisconsin legislature passed a law requiring a photo ID to vote earlier this year, Ruthelle may for the first time in over 60 years be unable to vote. Watch the video to learn why:

Politicians all over the United States are attempting to ram these Voter ID laws through the legislature ostensibly to prevent voter fraud. Of course investigation after investigation shows that there is no widespread voter fraud anywhere in the United States-and that includes New Mexico. Essentially, these vote-suppressing “Voter ID” laws are a solution in search of a problem.

Here in New Mexico we can be sure that legislators will once again attempt to foist the stale and debunked specter of fraud on us in an attempt to pass a Voter ID restriction in the upcoming 2012 legislative session. Secretary of State Dianna Duran’s well-publicized but opaque (and ultimately empty handed) fishing expedition through the voter rolls these past nine months is a clear preamble to the bill’s introduction. So when the session rolls around this coming January, we need to be prepared to ask our legislators why they want to make it harder for New Mexicans to vote?

As we saw in the video, Voter ID bills disenfranchise the elderly, the poor, the homeless, Native Americans and other minority groups who may not have valid photo IDs. Many people, like Ruthelle, may not even have access to or are unable to afford the documents that are needed to obtain a valid photo ID. Obtaining copies of birth certificates, passports or other documents required can be expensive-sometimes hundreds of dollars-and acts as a de facto poll tax on those who are least able to afford it. Voting is not a privilege, it is a constitutional right, and no eligible citizen should have to pay to vote.

Even though there is no evidence that photo IDs would be effective in preventing fraud, Voter ID apologists often use the line, “Even one instance of voter fraud is too many” to justify their crusade to impose roadblocks to the poll booth. But how many cases of voter disenfranchisement are too many? One? Two? Ten? Demographically, thousands of eligible New Mexicans stand to be disenfranchised by Voter ID legislation.

There are already hefty federal criminal penalties to deter people from committing voter fraud-and it works. There has never been a documented case of voter fraud in the state of New Mexico that would have been prevented by photo IDs. This coming January, let’s ask our representatives to focus their energy on coming up with real solutions to the real problems we face-not ginned up issues designed to disenfranchise large swaths of the electorate.

On November 15,

Panelists: Jennifer Podkul from the Women's Refugee Commission, Tania Chozet from the ACLU of New Mexico, and Danielle Alvarado from No More Deaths.

advocacy organization representatives and congressional staffers gathered in a small room in the Canon House Office Building for a congressional briefing on No More Deaths’ “Culture of Cruelty” report.  As we have reported previously (here and here), No More Deaths conducted interviews with nearly 13,000 migrants and documented 30,000 incidents of abuse and mistreatment by the U.S. Border Patrol in short-term detention over the course of three years. At the briefing, Danielle Alvarado from No More Deaths, Jennifer Podkul of the Women’s Refugee Commission, and Tania Chozet from the ACLU of New Mexico’s Regional Center for Border Rights each spoke about their experiences working with migrants near the border and their frustration surrounding the Border Patrol’s flat out denial of the report’s findings.

While the report presents a multitude of alarming statistics about the situation on our southwestern border (for example: “out of 433 incidents in which emergency medical treatment or medication were needed, only 59 (14%) received it before being deported – the other 86% were deported without receiving needed medical care”), yesterday’s briefing focused on the actions that members of Congress can take to alleviate the situation.

Despite the report’s disturbing findings, the Border Patrol has been unwilling to meet with No More Deaths locally.  This is not an isolated incident–Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has a reputation for being unresponsive to both civil society and congressional information requests.  The only existing oversight mechanism–the Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights & Civil Liberties (CRCL)–is understaffed, does not have the authority to issue penalties or make binding recommendations, and is not independent enough to truly hold the agency accountable.  Consequently, no one is asking questions about questionable Border Patrol policies.

In contrast, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has introduced access policies to allow advocacy groups to visit their detention facilities and conduct independent monitoring.  This program allows ICE to benefit from the expertise and advice of the advocacy community as well as fosters dialogue about ICE policies.  This model could provide similar accountability for Border Patrol policies and facilities.

The panelists emphasized that they are not asking that the laws go unenforced, just that they be carried out in a humane way.  This kind of abuse and mistreatment is inexcusable, particularly in the United States of America.  Moreover, though these policies are conducted under the guise of national security, human rights abuses do not make us safer.  Congress can do a number of things to hold the Border Patrol accountable for their actions including adding oversight and reporting conditions in budget bills and calling for oversight hearings.  Our members of Congress need to start asking the tough questions and requiring the executive agencies to take responsibility for the abuses occurring on their watch.

This blog post originally appeared on the website of Standing on the Side of Love, a Unitarian Universalist public advocacy campaign that seeks to harness love’s power to stop oppression.

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Want to do something about Border Patrol abuse?  Sign the petition.  Call the White House and ask the administration to launch an investigation.  Contact your members of Congress and ask them to call for an oversight hearing.  Make your voice heard!

Dear Friend of Liberty,
I’m writing you today to ask you to stand up to an organization that is willing to go to any length to take away a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion care here in New Mexico. I’m talking about Kansas-based “Operation Rescue,” a group of extremists with a track record of violence, harassment and intimidation towards abortion providers and women seeking abortions.Dear friend of liberty,

Their main target was once Kansas late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller. Dr. Tiller is now dead, murdered as he ushered Sunday worship at his church, and Operation Rescue followed Tiller’s surviving associates to Albuquerque where they relocated to continue providing late-term abortion care to women in need.

Stand up for women’s right to access reproductive health care and keep Operation Rescue’s extremist agenda out of New Mexico.

Operation Rescue recently made headlines in Albuquerque when they released recordings of 9-1-1 calls made from two health clinics where abortions are performed and demanded that the New Mexico Medical Board investigate several local physicians for alleged “unsafe” practices.

This is not a new tactic for Operation Rescue. The organization has used bogus complaints to medical boards in several other states in an attempt to harass and intimidate doctors. The person responsible for most of these complaints is Cheryl Sullenger, Operation Rescue’s Senior Policy Advisor, who served two years in U.S. federal prison for conspiring to bomb an abortion clinic in 1987.

In 2009, Sullenger lied about and then later admitted to feeding information regarding the whereabouts of Dr. Tiller to an anti-choice extremist named Scott Roeder. On Sunday, May 31, 2009, Roeder walked into the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas and shot and killed Dr. Tiller.

Making repeated complaints to the medical board and demanding endless investigations of abortion providers is the same strategy Operation Rescue used in Kansas to harass Dr. Tiller before he was murdered. Now Operation Rescue is using the same strategy here in New Mexico.

This has a serious chilling effect on abortion providers because time and expense required to hire attorneys, respond to an unending stream of subpoenas, and repeatedly appear before the medical board makes it extremely difficult to run a medical practice. And that is exactly what Operation Rescue is counting on.

Help keep our medical board from being hijacked by anti-choice extremists. Remind the Executive Director of the NM Medical Board that they should make decisions based on medicine – not the political agendas of out-of-state extremists.

Sincerely,

Peter Simonson

Executive Director