Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by the weather conditions in the region. We appreciate the work being done by volunteers and organizations across the state to provide resources to local communities. Please find links to resources and sources that have been providing updates with the latest information:
We must seize this opportunity to demand and secure racial justice.
Click the headline above to see the full statement by the EJC.
The Administration's effort to terminate the DACA program is now pending before the Supreme Court, which will announce its crucial decision in June 2020.
In the meantime, the Equal Justice Center joined in an amicus brief filed with the Court, has continued providing urgent legal assistance to safeguard Dreamers legal protections, and will continue to provide vital legal counsel and assistance to Dreamers whatever ruling is issued by the Supreme Court.
Click the headline above for more details.
When: October 3, 2019, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Where: Peter Pan Mini-Golf, 1207 Barton Springs Rd, Austin, TX 78704
Click on the link above for more information. We hope to see you there.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (June 15, 2018) — Workers recruited from Jamaica and other countries to work in hospitality businesses in Oklahoma on the J-1 exchange visitor visa program filed a federal labor trafficking lawsuit today, alleging they were induced to pay high recruitment fees and then paid less money than they had been promised, denied the full-time hours they were told they would receive, charged high fees for crowded and inadequate housing, and threatened with financial and/or physical harm if they left their jobs.
The EJC, in partnership with the Mexican Consulate of Austin, Education Austin, NALEO Educational Fund, the AFL-CIO and Univision Austin, is holding a Citizenship Drive Event on April 1. // El Centro de Justicia e Igualdad (Equal Justice Center) en colaboración con el Consulado Mexicano de Austin, Fondo Educativo de NALEO, AFL-CIO, Llevará a cabo un taller de Ciudadanía el 1 de abril.
El Centro de Justicia e Igualdad (Equal Justice Center), como parte de la alianza Texas Here to Stay (Texas No Nos Vamos), está organizando una serie de talleres y consultas de inmigración donde todos los inmigrantes, independientemente de su estatus migratorio, pueden ser informados sobre sus derechos. //
The Equal Justice Center, as part of the Texas Here to Stay coalition is co-hosting a series of information sessions and immigration consultations where all immigrants, regardless of immigration status, can be informed of their rights.
El Centro de Justicia e Igualdad (Equal Justice Center) en colaboración con Los Barrios de Amarillo, y el Amarillo Wesley Community Center tendran foro para que Conozcan sus Derechos en Amarillo, Texas.//
The Equal Justice Center, with Los Barrios de Amarillo and the Amarillo Wesley Community Center, is co-hosting a a series of Know Your Rights sessions in Amarillo, Texas.
Responding to the election outcome, the Equal Justice Center is mobilizing to defend justice for immigrants and protect the integrity of our communities from the new threats they may now face.
Austin American Statesman / Ahora Si!, Nov 22, 2016:
"Una nueva organización, Texas Here to Stay (no nos vamos de Texas), reunirá los esfuerzos de distintos grupos pro inmigrantes y ofrecerá asesorías legales, anunció la portavoz Megan Sheffield durante una conferencia el lunes 21 en el Consulado de México en Austin. Su trabajo empezará con una serie de clínicas “Know Your Rights” (conoce tus derechos), las cuales empiezan en diciembre para ofrecer consultas sobre temas migratorios.
Austin American-Statesman, Nov 22, 2016:
"A new organization, Texas Here to Stay, will link efforts of immigrant assistance groups and provide legal clinics, spokeswoman Megan Sheffield announced during a news conference Monday at the Consulate General of Mexico’s Austin offices. Its work will kick off with a series of “Know Your Rights” clinics starting in December to provide legal and immigration information."
Though local advocacy groups have worked together informally for years, the outcome of the presidential election led them to them come together formally, said Sheffield, an attorney with the Equal Justice Center. Read the full story
The Equal Justice Center's staff and clients invite you and your family to take part in the Equal Justice Center's 15th Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser at Peter Pan Mini-Golf in Austin, Texas.
EJC attorney Gabriela Vega was selected by the Latino Center for Leadership Development - LCLD to be a member of the 2016-2017 Leadership Academy Class.
The Leadership Academy is an educational and leadership training program aimed at providing promising leaders with a set of knowledge, skills, experiences, and networks necessary to assume and succeed in positions of impact with a focus on policy-making roles and elected office.
Houston Chronicle Op-Ed: Labor Day is a good time to remember that workplace justice, whether in the U.S. or around the globe, has never just happened naturally. Quite the opposite. Workplace justice has always arisen from two deliberate social demands that work in constant tension with the profit-seeking incentives of the free market.
Just days before Labor Day, thirty-four food service workers who were employed at San Antonio-area Subway, Marble Slab Creamery, and Great American Cookies franchises filed dismissal papers after settling their Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) lawsuit for unpaid overtime wages.
On April 18, the Equal Justice Center and the Transnational Worker Rights Clinic, along with other Texas Law School clinics, hosted an expert forum on the US Supreme Court's potentially landmark DACA/DAPA case styled U.S. v Texas. A panel of legal scholars and advocates analyzed the case's core issues and implications.
In the closing month of 2015, the Equal Justice Center surpassed the milestone of $8.5 million recovered in wage theft cases for low-wage working men and women.
As 2015 comes to a close, the Equal Justice Center is actively pushing forward in three different ways to help implement President Obama’s ground-breaking executive immigration programs.
RESCHEDULED RAIN DATE CELEBRATION at PETER PAN MINI-GOLF (click on the story link for more information)
The Equal Justice Center has launched an innovative new project to combat the scourge of sexual assault in the workplace and to provide survivors of sexual assault with expert legal assistance on employment-related matters.
“What the Equal Justice Center does for our clients and their families is place in their hands the powerful tools of the law and the legal system,” said EJC Austin attorney, Christopher Willett. “With that power, they can take charge of protecting their own rights and hold unscrupulous employers accountable through their own direct action. In our society, that amounts to real power and recognized legitimacy.”
EJC is honored by our many friends who joined us and by the support of our event sponsors.
This Clinic, which is a partnership between the UT Law School and the Equal Justice Center, allows law students to gain hands-on employment litigation experience as part of their law school education. The law students receive expert legal training and supervision from EJC attorneys, including Bill Beardall, who also serves as a clinical professor at the Law School and director of the Transnational Worker Rights Clinic. As this case illustrates, the law students get not only a valuable legal education, but also the experience of using the law to empower regular working people to win justice and uphold their dignity.
Responding to the startling wave of refugee children fleeing Central American who have arrived at the Texas-Mexico border in recent months seeking refuge in the U.S. , the Equal Justice Center has mobilized its attorneys, law students, and interns have mobilized to help address their humanitarian need for legal counsel and assistance.
In November, 2011 the New York Times reported the startling new revelation by the Census Bureau that one in three people in America is currently living either below or near the poverty line. Half of them are what the Times labeled the “near poor” – individuals and families at less than 150% of the poverty level who are struggling from paycheck to paycheck to escape poverty.
