by Julie Yates | Oct 11, 2019 | News
CREEC signed on as a partner in the Equity for All of Me. All the Time. campaign earlier this fall. A national public education campaign Equity for All of Me. All the Time. was launched by the National LGBTQ Task Force and the National Black Justice Coalition on April 4th in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights legacy. The campaign seeks to educate federal policymakers about the need for non-discrimination protections to ensure the whole person is protected at all times no matter where they are. Victoria Kim (pronouns: she, her, hers), field organizer at the National LGBTQ Task Force, explains why this is personal for her by saying, “As a femme identifying woman of color, my womanness and my Asianness are protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from discrimination based on race and sex, but because I’m queer, I, as a whole person, am not currently protected under federal law and am still at risk for discrimination in multiple ways. As we know, this leaves room for people to use that as a loophole to discriminate against folks in housing, employment, public accommodations, and more.” Interested? Want to Learn More? All of Me. All the Time. Campaign Op Ed: “Finding an Apartment or House Is Often Scary When You’re LGBTQ” by Victoria Kim Op Ed: “The Civil Rights Act Needs To Include All Black People” by Victoria Kirby...
by Amy F. Robertson | Oct 4, 2019 | News
Yesterday, we celebrated the life and mourned the passing of Judge Wiley Y. Daniel, a Senior United States District Judge in the District of Colorado. I have been privileged to practice before Judge Daniel from early in my legal career to earlier this year, and each time it was a delightful experience. He was always prepared, knowledgeable, practical, respectful, and funny. He worked hard to put everyone in the courtroom at ease so we could get to the business at hand, for example, carefully establishing out-of-state counsel’s college football and basketball allegiances before proceeding. In one of my earliest appearances before Judge Daniel, I was arguing for wheelchair access to Denver’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Opposing counsel observed that Red Rocks was built into the side of a steep mountain. Judge Daniel responded by asking (something to the effect of — unlike the below, we didn’t get the transcript), “That’s all well and good, but why should the burden of that geography fall only on people with disabilities?” He has, from the get go, understood the fundamental premise of disability civil rights. In June, 2018, we again appeared before Judge Daniel on the question of wheelchair access to Red Rocks, though this time it was to seek final approval of a class action settlement addressing ticketing and scalping problems that had excluded people with disabilities. Final approval hearings are always upbeat events, as the parties have settled and appear before the judge jointly requesting his blessing of the settlement. Judge Daniel quizzed us on the details of the agreement, indicated his intent to approve it, and then took the opportunity...
by CREEC | Aug 29, 2019 | News
For Immediate Release Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019 Denver Broncos Football Club: Seth Medvin Seth.Medvin@broncos.nfl.net/720-391-4033 cell CREEC: Amy Robertson 303-917-1870 BRONCOS STADIUM AT MILE HIGH EXPANDS SERVICES FOR DEAF & HARD OF HEARING FANS WITH OPEN CAPTIONING SERVICE Measures result from collaboration with deaf patron and the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center DENVER — Stadium Management Company (SMC), the Metropolitan Football Stadium District (MFSD) and the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC) announced on Thursday that Broncos Stadium at Mile High will expand its services for deaf & hard of hearing fans by providing open captioning on its LED ribbon boards. Fully operational for stadium events, the open captioning service will be displayed on three LED boards at Broncos Stadium at Mile High. Two boards are located on the southeast and southwest side adjacent to the Ring of Fame nameplates and one is on the northwest corner of the stadium. Broncos Stadium at Mile High already provides closed captioning services for fans’ mobile devices and on assistive listening devices available for checkout from guest relations staff. In conjunction with CREEC and Kirstin Kurlander Garcia, a deaf sports fan and stadium patron, the stadium will now caption information spoken over the public address system on the LED boards. The open captioning service will be used at Broncos home games, Denver Outlaws Major League Lacrosse games and other major stadium events (international soccer games, AMA Supercross, etc.). For more information about how the Broncos support and service deaf & hard of hearing fans, please visit www.broncosstadiumatmilehigh.com/stadium-information/guest-information. ABOUT CREEC: The Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC) is a nonprofit membership...
by CREEC | Aug 28, 2019 | Accessibility, Case news, Civil rights, CREEC news, Discrimination, Immigration detention, News
A refugee from Sudan, Hamida Ali has a mental disability and a history of suicide attempts. Despite this, Ms. Ali was left in a dorm by herself with no other detained individuals or guards for nine months, exacerbating her symptoms. Edilberto Garcia Guerrero experiences chronic headaches and pain in his neck, shoulder, ear, and eye. He also has diminished vision and hearing. These all stem from an assault he suffered in ICE custody and have not been addressed by medical staff. Mr. Guerrero previously had reconstructive ankle surgery after falling off a roof. He fell in ICE custody while in ankle cuffs, causing the breakage or dislocation of screws from his previous surgery. Mr. Guerrero is still waiting for surgery. These are just two people among the 15 individual plaintiffs and two organizational plaintiffs, Al Otro Lado and Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, named in a nationwide federal class action lawsuit filed on August 19, 2019 by CREEC, Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and Orrick, Herrington, & Sutcliffe, LLP. And our plaintiffs are not alone in suffering at the hands of ICE and their contractors. On any given day, about 55,000 people are being held in ICE custody. Last year, ICE detained a total of almost 400,000 immigrants. The Trump administration has funneled record numbers of immigrants into ICE prisons across America, subjecting thousands of men and women to in horrific, inhumane conditions in repurposed prisons and jails. These men and women are asylum seekers, longtime American residents, military veterans, teenagers, and refugees, among others. “In two years of investigating conditions for people...
by Julie Yates | Aug 19, 2019 | Accessibility, Case news, Civil rights, CREEC news, Discrimination, Immigration detention, News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 19, 2019 Civil Rights Groups Charge that ICE Disregards Immigrants’ Medical, Mental Health Needs and Ignores Discrimination Against Immigrants with Disabilities New Nationwide Class Action Lawsuit Highlights Abusive Isolation, Horrific Medical and Mental Health Care, and Denial of Accommodations to and Discrimination Against Detained Immigrants with Disabilities Los Angeles —A nationwide class action lawsuit was filed today against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and others acting in their official capacities. The lawsuit challenges the federal government’s failure to ensure detained immigrants receive appropriate medical and mental health care, its punitive use of segregation in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and its failure to ensure that detained immigrants with disabilities are provided accommodations and do not face discrimination as required by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The lawsuit was filed by Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC), Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in the U.S District Court for the Central District of California. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of 15 individuals detained at eight different facilities in six states, representing a class of approximately 55,000 immigrants imprisoned by ICE on any given day, and two nonprofit organizations, Al Otro Lado and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ). The lawsuit challenges ICE’s systemic failures to enforce constitutional and statutory requirements at the approximately 158 facilities across the country where people in immigrant detention are held, resulting in the delay and outright denial of medical care, the punitive use...
by Julie Yates | Aug 15, 2019 | Case news, Civil rights, CREEC news, Disability rights, Discrimination, Effective Communication, Immigration detention, News
“I was so sad. So afraid I’d never see my son again. I had no idea that they [US Customs and Border Patrol] would separate us, especially in the case of my son who is deaf and who can’t communicate easily,” says an asylum-seeking mom from Guatemala who prefers to remain anonymous for safety reasons. She goes on to say that CREEC’s Liz Jordan “helped me communicate with my son, and closely followed what was happening to me. Without CREEC’s help I would not have been able to figure out what was happening with my son and I would not have been able to fight my case.” Separated from his mother soon after crossing the border in April 2018, a 17-yr old deaf asylum seeker was transported alone hundreds of miles away to an Office of Refugee Resettlement shelter in Arizona – without interpretation services or accommodations of any kind. His only means of communication? Drawing pictures. Meanwhile, the boy’s mother was sent to the ICE detention center in Aurora, Colorado where she asked for a video call with her son. Her requests were ignored. She says, “I felt so alone when I first got to Aurora. I didn’t know what I had to do. I met with a pro bono attorney and explained everything that had happened with me and my son and that he was deaf. They referred my case to CREEC. I remember my first visit from CREEC. I felt so much more supported. I felt myself come back to life a bit.” “It was a long fight involving multiple requests for a video call, consistent...
