MALDEF CEO To Address AZ Immigration Law At Minority Business Summit

FMCRC is pleased to announce that Mr. Thomas Saenz (CEO of MALDEF) will join Ms. Kerry Kennedy as speakers at the FMCRC Annual Builder of Community & Country Awards dinner. Ms. Kerry Kennedy is the founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Ms. Kennedy is the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy.

Mr. Saenz will speak to Florida community and business leaders regarding their lawsuit against the state of Arizona and how this Arizona Immigration law impacts all Latinos and minorities across our nation.

MALDEF has filed a legal challenge to the Arizona Racial Profiling law. The lawsuit charges that the Arizona law unlawfully interferes with federal power and authority over immigration matters in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution; invites racial profiling against people of color by law enforcement in violation of the equal protection guarantee and prohibition on unreasonable seizures under the Fourteenth and Fourth Amendments; and infringes on the free speech rights of day laborers and others in Arizona.

"Arizona's law is quintessentially un-American: we are not a 'show me your papers' country, nor one that believes in subjecting people to harassment, investigation and arrest simply because others may perceive them as foreign,” said Omar Jadwat, a staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “This law violates the Constitution and interferes with federal law, and we are confident that we will prevent it from ever taking effect."

We at FMCRC applaud MALDEF for coming to Florida to educate our communities on this Arizona law that will fuel racial profiling across the United States.

The Awards Dinner is part of the annual FMCRC Florida Minority Community Economic Development Summit. For information or agenda on the FMCRC Summit-Let’s Do Business Florida, go to:
www.letsdobusinessflorida.com or www.fmcrc.org


MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund)
President and General Counsel
THOMAS A. SAENZ,
Biography
Thomas A. Saenz returns to MALDEF as President and General Counsel. Previously, as Counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Saenz honed his leadership skills by serving on the four-person executive team to the mayor, where he provided legal and policy advice on major initiatives. During his four-year tenure with the City of Los Angeles, Saenz helped to lead the legislative effort to change the governance of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the effect of which has been to take the City a step closer to securing a quality education for all students in Los Angeles. Saenz also served as the lead liaison on labor negotiations, with a goal of addressing serious financial challenges in partnership with the City’s workers.

Saenz had previously practiced civil rights litigation at MALDEF for 12 years. During that time, he was a leader in the successful challenge to California’s unconstitutional Proposition 187, and he led numerous civil rights cases in the areas of immigrants’ rights, education, employment, and voting rights. Saenz achieved several victories against ordinances unlawfully restricting the rights of day laborers, served as lead counsel in the 2001 challenge to California’s congressional redistricting, and initiated the employment discrimination lawsuit resulting in a $50 million settlement with Abercrombie and Fitch. He served as MALDEF’s lead counsel in two court challenges to Proposition 227, a California English-only education initiative. Saenz was also the lead drafter of the Amicus brief on behalf of Latino organizations supporting affirmative action in the Supreme Court case, Grutter v. Bollinger.

Saenz has been recognized on numerous occasions for his work. He was selected as one of Hispanic Business Magazine’s “100 Most Influential Hispanics” in October 2009. In June 2009, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California presented Saenz with the Social Justice Award and the Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior (IME) Ohtli Award in 2008. In 2007, Saenz received the Peace and Justice Award from Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California; the Latino Law Students Association of Yale Law School Public Service Award in 2007; and the Mexican American Bar Foundation Professional Achievement Award in 2006.

Saenz was born and raised in southern California. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale University, and he received his law degree from Yale Law School. Saenz served as a law clerk to the Honorable Harry L. Hupp of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. For eight years, Saenz taught Civil Rights Litigation as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Southern California (USC) Law School. His board service includes the Los Angeles County Board of Education, Alliance for Children’s Rights, ENCOMPASS and the Impact Fund.

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