Thursday 23 April 2009

Poor Latinos are victims of abuse nationwide, activists say

(CNN) -- Low-income Latinos are routinely discriminated against in the South, a new report says, but the study's author and others say the problem exists nationwide, with millions of Spanish-speaking immigrants living "beyond the protection of the law."

Migrant laborers help in the post-Hurricane Katrina cleanup in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2006.

Migrant laborers help in the post-Hurricane Katrina cleanup in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2006.

The report, released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center, documents the experiences of 500 immigrants in the South, finding that Latinos routinely are cheated out of wages, are denied basic health protection and fall victim to racial profiling.

"Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South" details stories such as that of a Tennessee woman who says she was jailed at a cheese factory for asking for pay, a bean picker in Alabama who says his life savings were taken by police at a traffic stop, and a rapist in Georgia who was not arrested because the suspect's victim was an undocumented immigrant.

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