Latinos, Orlando and Gun Control

By:  Andres Parra, GALEO Intern

August 18, 2016

The massacre in Orlando was a direct attack towards the LGBTQ and the United States. The majority of victims that night were Hispanic and because of that our community suffered with Orlando. This sad event is a reminder towards the easy access to guns in this country and how our community is disproportionately affected by those guns. Just in the year 2013, nearly 3.000 Latinos were killed by guns ¹. Even though, as Latinos, we are less likely than blacks or whites in this country to own a gun, we are twice as likely to be a victim of a gun than whites ^{1, 2}. It is then essential that as Latinos we become part of this life or death conversation and demand rational gun control in this country.

Legal Permanent Residents as Peace Officers

By GALEO Student Intern, Andres Parra

*Peace officer: a civil officer appointed to preserve law and order, such as a sheriff or police officer.

When it comes to diversifying our police forces, we have made great progress. According to the Department of Justice the percentage of local police officers who were racial or ethnic minorities nearly doubled between 1987 and 2013 ¹. In fact, according to a New York Times article, of the largest police departments Atlanta had one of the smallest racial disparities in 2007 between its police department and its community². All in all, a police force that looks like the community it serves is a good thing. It helps increase trust between the police force and the community. It also allows officers to overcome cultural barriers that may exist between them and residents in their jurisdictions. However, we still have a long way to go and nowhere is the cultural schism so great as between our police forces and immigrant communities. Allowing legal permanent residents to apply for these jobs could help minimize the cultural and linguistic barriers our officers face nationwide.

By Program Manager Samuel Aguilar

In 2012, as an undergraduate intern for GALEO, I wrote a thesis on the topic of bipartisan immigration reform and proposed my own policy solution.  Based off the strength of my writing and GALEO’s network, it gained some attention and I presented my proposal at various southeastern public policy and immigration conferences.  Now, after almost two years of working full time at GALEO, I’ll be heading to Florida to work on federal immigration reform with FWD.us – quite literally a dream come true.  It’s a bittersweet moment for me as I prepare to take my career to the next level while leaving behind the organization and state that gave me countless opportunities to prove myself.