FBI Report Finds Hate Crime at Highest Level since 2001

Following a slight drop in 2007, the number of reported hate crimes in United States rose in 2008, according to latest figures from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In its annual report, "Hate Crime Statistics 2008", the FBI documented 7,783 hate crimes in 2008, up from the 7,624 reported in 2007. The 2008 report shows the highest number of crimes directed at Blacks, Jews, and gay men and lesbians since 2001.

While the uptick in reported hate crimes is a disturbing trend, it may also reflect the fact that a higher number of law enforcement agencies are participating in the FBI's annual data collection effort. The FBI reported that 13,690 law enforcement agencies in the United States participated in the 2008 report – the largest number of police agencies in the 18-year history of the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990. 

Each year, tens of thousands of people enter the United States seeking refuge from poverty, war, political or religious persecution, or human rights abuses. Among the most vulnerable of these immigrants are children who enter the country without a parent.  

In 2007, more than 8,000 unaccompanied children were held in U.S. custody, according to the Women's Refuge Commission.

The United States has long made it a priority of immigration policy to reunite families.  The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 ended earlier policies that prioritized immigrants from Europe and replaced them with a system that prioritized family immigration.

However, current immigration enforcement has had devastating effects on families.  Once detained, children are held in border patrol stations for weeks, often without blankets, showers or adequate nutrition. Furthermore, children are often forced to navigate through the immigration system alone, with about 50 percent appearing in court without an attorney.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has become harmfully politicized and has strayed from its mission to protect the civil rights of Americans. That was the message that the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the ACLU, and a coalition other civil and human rights groups presented at a November 18 congressional briefing.

The groups called for reforms that would broaden the commission's mandate so that it can better investigate and address civil rights issues and work to strengthen U.S. commitments on human rights.  In particular, they are seeking a change in the way that members are appointed to the commission to ensure that commissioners remain independent. Currently, members are appointed by Congress and the president and are not required to undergo a confirmation process.

The commission was created with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 as an independent fact-finding body charged with investigating and reporting on civil rights and making recommendations to the federal government on how to fix the problems it uncovered.  Through its fact-finding work, it helped lay the foundation for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Over the past few years, however, the commission has taken positions hostile to civil rights issues, such as opposing the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act in 2006.

Civil rights and progressive organizations, including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the AFL-CIO, and the Center for Community Change, have joined the Economic Policy Institute in calling attention to the urgent need to address the current jobs crisis in light of new unemployment data released for October 2009. 

The national jobs crisis has become a major barrier to progress in our country. Without job security, families will continue to lose their homes and will stop saving for their own retirement or their children's education.  Job security is also essential because the decisions and sacrifices made by the families hit the hardest today will have lasting repercussions for years to come.  For example, young adults who must work to support their families instead of attending school will find themselves disadvantaged when competing for work in the future.

Enacting legislation that would prevent employers from discriminating against people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is a top priority for the Obama administration, according to Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general, Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

"We cannot in good conscience stand by and watch unjustifiable discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals occur in the workplace without redress," Perez told members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions at a hearing last week on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). "We have come too far in our struggle for 'equal justice under the law' to remain silent or stoic."

As head of the Civil Rights Division, Perez oversees the enforcement of federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, disability, religion, and national origin, including the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act. 

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two separate cases to determine whether sentencing juveniles to life in prison without the possibility of parole for non-homicide crimes violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Sullivan v. Florida is the case of Joe Sullivan, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole 20 years ago at the age of 13.  Graham v. Florida is the case of Terrance Jamar Graham, who violated parole at age 17 and was sentenced, without a trial, to life without parole.  Both cases took place in Florida, one of only six states that have imprisoned juveniles for life without parole for non-homicide offenses.

Many civil rights groups, academics, and social scientists have spoken out against these sentencing practices.  Charles Ogletree — who joined in a brief submitted by the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., in support of Graham and Sullivan — said that the Court should apply the same logic to these case it used to decide Roper v. Simmons, which struck down capital punishment for minors as unconstitutional. 

"The same transient qualities of adolescence that the Court relied upon in Roper make it similarly inappropriate to subject a teenager to a permanent punishment of life in prison without parole. It is cruel and inaccurate, as the Court has recognized, to pass a final and irreversible judgment on a person whose character is still forming and undergoing significant changes," Ogletree said.

The U.S. Senate blocked a controversial amendment today that would have required the Census Bureau to belatedly add a citizenship question to the 2010 Census questionnaire.

In voting for cloture on the Commerce Justice and Science (CJS) FY10 Appropriations bill, a majority of senators effectively stopped the amendment from coming up for a vote. If approved, the amendment would have asked respondents to identify if they are a U.S. citizen and would have required the reprinting of Census questionnaires at an estimated cost of $1 billion.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) welcomed the decision. "The civil rights community won an important battle today in the fight for a fair and accurate 2010 census that counts every person in the United States as required by the U.S. Constitution," said LCCR President and CEO Wade Henderson.

Nearly 40 national civil rights organizations recently sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D. Nev., stating their concern over the obstructionist tactics used to stall Dawn Johnsen's nomination and urged him to bring the nomination to a vote quickly.

President Obama nominated Dawn Johnsen to head the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in February.  Her nomination was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 19 and has been pending ever since.

The OLC is a critical agency that advises the executive branch on the constitutionality of proposed policies, legislation, and executive orders. Johnsen is well qualified for this position, having served in the OLC as a deputy assistant attorney general from 1993 to 1996 and as the acting assistant attorney general from 1997 to 1998. She is currently a professor of constitutional law at the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University.

"Professor Johnsen has the experience, the integrity, and the intellect to head this critical office. She should be confirmed without further delay…We urge you to use the full force of your office to bring this nomination to a vote at the earliest possible date," the letter states.

Read the letter (PDF)