New York, NY, August 7, 2019 … In response to the recent white supremacist attack in El Paso, Texas, ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), UnidosUS (formerly NCLR) and LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) announced a new partnership today, which will share best practices and techniques for documenting and responding to hate violence – including efforts to improve comprehensive hate crime reporting.
ADL will work in collaboration with UnidosUS and LULAC to determine how to best identify, report and respond to hate crimes and targeted anti-Latinx and anti-Semitic incidents. Through this effort, ADL, LULAC and UnidosUS will leverage their networks and develop training workshops and webinars to improve hate crime reporting and response. And to address situations where victims do not feel safe reporting these crimes to local law enforcement, the groups will share best practices for responding to hate and referring victims to social services and legal assistance as needed.
“Thoughts and prayers are not enough; it’s time for concrete programs and action. We know data drives policy and in this time of rising hate, we must improve hate crime data collection because we simply cannot address what we do not measure,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “At ADL, we’ve been carefully monitoring anti-Semitic incidents for decades and now we’re proud to partner more closely with UnidosUS and LULAC to develop more comprehensive national hate crime reporting, which can ultimately improve policies designed to prevent hate violence and target resources to communities most in need.”
“We will continue to do our part to keep the community safe and appreciate this partnership with our long-time ally ADL. Their experience will give Latinos stronger tools to identify, report, and respond to hate crimes,” said Janet Murguía, President and CEO of UnidosUS. “It gives me hope that in spite of the division that seems to dominate our nation’s discourse, communities across America are coming together to rise above fear, division and hate and restore respect, dignity and common humanity for all in our society.”
“On August 3rd the Latino community was racially targeted and brutally attacked in what has unfortunately become one of the top 10 deadliest shootings in modern American history,” said Sindy Benavides, CEO of LULAC. “The partnership with ADL and UnidosUS will be crucial in engaging Latinos to report hate crimes, and for collecting data in order to protect our communities.”
The collected efforts will work to ensure hate crimes are treated seriously by state and local law enforcement officials – and that individual victims are empowered to report these crimes to police regardless of immigration status. In order to effectively address hate crimes and build trust, the partners will also work with other community members to ensure local law enforcement officials have no role in federal immigration enforcement.
“It’s clear that the increasing mainstreaming of anti-immigrant rhetoric and remarks denigrating Latinos overall have sparked deep fear in the Latinx community. Too frequently, marginalized community members, including immigrants, their families or neighbors, and those with limited English language skills, cannot report, or do not feel safe reporting, hate crimes,” said Greenblatt. “This partnership will work to build trust between law enforcement and immigrant and marginalized communities to help individuals feel safe in reporting hate crimes without fear of deportation.”
ADL will share expertise on collecting and aggregating hate incident data. For the past 40 years, ADL has been compiling and publishing an annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. Collected and curated by ADL experts, the Audit underscores the importance of treating each and every hate incident seriously, and helps law enforcement officials understand the need to treat these crimes targeting the Jewish community with the urgency they deserve. The collaboration will also utilize ADL’s H.E.A.T Map (Hate, Extremism, Anti-Semitism, Terrorism) as an example of one effective way hate crime data can be displayed for geographical mapping and trend analysis.
ADL is a leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of anti-Semitism and bigotry, its timeless mission is to protect the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of hate with the same vigor and passion. ADL is the first call when acts of anti-Semitism occur. A global leader in exposing extremism, delivering anti-bias education and fighting hate online, ADL’s ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate. More at www.adl.org.
UnidosUS, previously known as NCLR (National Council of La Raza), is the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization. Through its unique combination of expert research, advocacy, programs, and an Affiliate Network of nearly 300 community-based organizations across the United States and Puerto Rico, UnidosUS simultaneously challenges the social, economic, and political barriers that affect Latinos at the national and local levels. For more than 50 years, UnidosUS has united communities and different groups seeking common ground through collaboration, and that share a desire to make our country stronger. For more information on UnidosUS, visit www.unidosus.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights volunteer-based organization that empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with 1,000 councils around the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC’s programs, services and advocacy address the most important issues for Latinos, meeting critical needs of today and the future. For more information, visit https://lulac.org/