Author Archives: Sheley Secrest

Driver’s Licenses for Immigrants Strengthens Families and the Economy

Across the nation, families, business owners, and police officers are calling on lawmakers to bring fairness to all in need of driver’s licenses – an item that many simply take for granted as an award for learning the rules of the road. But for millions of undocumented residents throughout the U.S., the denial of thisContinue reading “Driver’s Licenses for Immigrants Strengthens Families and the Economy”

Sins of Omission Hurt Workers of Color

The U.S. has made a dangerous shift to a low-wage economy where people of color disproportionately hold low-wage jobs. Coupled with an expanding Job Gap in many states, Jobs created by infrastructure investments generally pay relatively well and are accessible to individuals without a college education. Adhering to federal contracting rules and can ensure an increaseContinue reading “Sins of Omission Hurt Workers of Color”

The Symposium in Review: #CellBlocks and #Borderstops… #Human Beings

Re-Posted from the Institute for Pragmatic Practice (www.pragmaticpractice.org) In the last four decades, mass incarceration and immigration control in the United States has skyrocketed. Our nation has become an engine that pulls people from their communities, removing them from the very fabric that gives them their humanity. Over-policing of everyday lives has made the simpleContinue reading “The Symposium in Review: #CellBlocks and #Borderstops… #Human Beings”

When Living Your Life is Called a Crime

  Millions of people have become casualties of the prevailing system of criminalization. Entire communities of people must be deemed “throw-away” or “castaways” in order to gain maximum profits and drive a robust free- market that exists beyond the realm of ethics and humanity. These communities are almost always low-income and disproportionately, communities of color.Continue reading “When Living Your Life is Called a Crime”

Risking Personal Freedom for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Marco Saavedra sacrificed his own freedom to demand the immediate release of the low-priority detainees found in detention centers across the country whom could be spared from deportation simply by applying prosecutorial discretion.  He is right.  Not only will releasing non-criminal to low-level offenders reunite families, it will save the United States a ton ofContinue reading “Risking Personal Freedom for Comprehensive Immigration Reform”

MARCHING ONWARD!

Sing a song, full of the faith that the dark past has taught us Sing a song, full of the hope that the present has brought us Facing the rising sum of our new day begun Let us march on till victory is won Excerpts of The Negro National Anthem —by James Weldon Johnson “LiftContinue reading “MARCHING ONWARD!”

“No One Should Live in Fear…” Courts Rule on NYPD “Stop and Frisk”

A simple premise behind every law that gets created: No one should live in fear. The laws we create should support that basic assumption by reducing crime. But when laws have no bearing on crime rates, yet become the very source of fear that people live with, we have crossed the Constitutional boundary, and lawContinue reading ““No One Should Live in Fear…” Courts Rule on NYPD “Stop and Frisk””

Minority Dissent: The Voting Rights Act Decision

Cite as: 570 U.S. _____ (2013) ALLIANCE FOR A JUST SOCIETY, dissenting SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES ————— No. 12-96 ————— SHELBY COUNTY, ALABAMA, PETITIONER v. ERIC H. HOLDER, JR., ATTORNEY GENERAL, ET AL. ON WRIT OF CERTIRORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT [June 25, 2013]Continue reading “Minority Dissent: The Voting Rights Act Decision”

Payday Lending is a Drain on the U.S. Economy

The Insight Center for Community Economic Development released its latest report finding the payday lending industry cost the American economy $774 million in 2011, causing the estimated net loss of more than 14,000 jobs.  Add in the costs caused by an increase in Chapter 13 bankruptcies from borrowers unable to keep afloat of the drainingContinue reading “Payday Lending is a Drain on the U.S. Economy”