New president/general counsel at Latino legal defense group

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC
Thomas Saenz becomes is the new president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Aug. 18, 2009 | Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC

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Over four decades the Los Angeles-based Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has won notable civil rights cases on behalf of large groups of Latinos. A new president and general counsel takes over tomorrow. He’s the fourth person in as many years to hold that job. Observers say instability in the group’s top position has held back the nation’s oldest and most successful Latino legal defense group during a key moment in Latino civil rights. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has the story.

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: The 5400 block of East Beverly Boulevard in East L.A. is a Latino lawyers’ row. Law firms with the names Castillo and Valverde advertise income tax and immigration services. At 5429 Beverly Boulevard the phone rings at least five times a day with arguably more serious calls, says lawyer Monica Guizar.

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Monica Guizar: This case right here is one piece of a case on, immigrant worker in Bakersfield who was raped by her supervisor and then she complained, went to the police department and was fired.

Guzman-Lopez: The cases and their translated testimonies of discrimination form piles all over her office.

Guizar: This case here, this stack here, he’s a Latino from El Centro, California who worked at an immigration detention facility. And he was fired because he’s a member of the National Guard, that’s what he was told. And that’s a violation of California law and federal law.

Guzman-Lopez: Guizar’s one of dozens of civil rights lawyers in the Southland who files suits on behalf of individuals. University of Washington political science scholar Luis Fraga says that’s no match for the class action heft of cases the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund takes on.

Luis Fraga: As Latinos grow and move to different regions of the country, as issues of immigration continue to present challenges to the country and to Latino communities, and as the methods of denying opportunity to Latino communities become more sophisticated there’s an increased need for litigation organizations like this.

Guzman-Lopez: Fraga is married to a member of the MALDEF board of directors.

In 1970 MALDEF sued to end public school segregation in a small Texas town. Eleven years later, it sued Los Angeles County for drawing elective district lines that diluted Latino political representation. That led to Gloria Molina’s seat on the county board of supervisors. Four years ago MALDEF sued clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch on grounds that it employed Latino, African-American, and other employees of color only in the back room, not on the sales floor.

But Arturo Vargas of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials says MALDEF was absent during this decade’s Latino immigrant marches and the debate over immigration reform.

Arturo Vargas: We could have had a larger role for MALDEF, a greater voice for MALDEF, for example in Washington, D.C. during all the comprehensive immigrant reform debates.

Guzman-Lopez: MALDEF’s head of litigation disagrees. She notes the organization’s successful arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a Texas redistricting case a few years ago, and its testimony in the nation’s capital in favor of immigration reform.

Vargas and other MALDEF observers say a revolving door of general counsels since the departure of longtime leader Antonia Hernandez five years ago has led to instability. Hernandez, who now leads the California Community Foundation, a KPCC funder, doesn’t disagree. She says her successors at MALDEF were the wrong fit.

Antonia Hernandez: It was a difficult transition for MALDEF. And I think to a large degree it was based on not truly understanding what it would take, and what it takes to run an institution.

Guzman-Lopez: Hernandez says funders don’t like instability. MALDEF generated close to $5 million in public support six years ago. The non-profit took in a million-and-a-half less than that last year. It’s had to lay off lawyers and close offices in Sacramento, Houston, and Atlanta. Antonia Hernandez says the key to MALDEF’s future is to position a brainy civil rights litigator at the top, so the organization can fulfill its reputation as “the law firm for the Latino community.”

John Eastman: I think it’s become more the law firm for the illegal immigrant community.

Guzman-Lopez: Chapman University constitutional law scholar John Eastman echoes some of the criticism MALDEF’s faced from some in the legal community and from media figures like CNN television anchor Lou Dobbs.

Eastman: I think ultimately they’re defining success by completely breaking down the distinction between citizen and non-citizen.

Guzman-Lopez: Eastman expects MALDEF’s new general counsel to advocate even more for illegal immigrants. That new general counsel, veteran civil rights litigator Thomas Saenz, doesn’t deny it. More on him tomorrow.

Andrews
5 months, 3 weeks ago

MALDEF has totally lost its way no longer focusing on U.S. Citizen Hispanics
but now a foot soldier in Mexico's Agenda to create an Illegal Insurgent
Mexican Nation loyal to Mexico First within the borders of the USA!!
numbersusa.com
capsweb.org
ccir.net

Shy Activist
5 months, 3 weeks ago

Let's see, in the last five years MALDEF has ended segregation of Latino employees in a company, ended segregation of Latino students in a public school, prevailed in a voting case before the U.S. Supreme Court, ensured all qualified military veterans received tuition exemptions in Texas, settled a lawsuit on behalf of peaceful immigration reform marchers, enjoined cities from instituting anti-immigrant ordinances, ensured students have quality educational programs so they can learn academic English, provided congressional testimony on the Voting Rts Act and comprehensive immig reform among others, etc., etc. And That's just a snapshot and yes, it's been on behalf of all Latino immigrants (UIs and documented) as well as USCs.
No doubt the leadership at the top and the fundraising has been lackiing but the great work has continued. Tom's commitment and brilliance will help revitalize the organization and bring the stability funders desire.

Daniel
5 months, 3 weeks ago

Ultimately, it is the board of directors that is responsible for the poor choice in leaders and economic situation of MALDEF.

My understanding is that the board of directors appointed Ann Marie Wheelock because she was the person Hernandez wanted. Hernandez, who ran the organization for so many years, should have known then what it would take to run an institution. Instead of choosing Tom (who she now thinks is the right choice) she choose Ann Marie who was the worst possible choice for the organization.

It is also the the board has failed to raise funds necessary to allow MALDEF to succeed. New leadership is critical!

MALDEF needs new leadership and that starts at the top - the board of directors. It is more than clear that MALDEF needs a new board of directors that can raise the funds to make sure Tom Saenz succeeds.

mariana
5 months, 3 weeks ago

I've never seen Tom look so happy. I'm so glad that he was finally picked. I hope that now that he is happy he is easier to talk to.

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