HSPRD honors Hispanic Heritage month and celebrates the many achievements of Latinos in our city, our state, and our nation. Since our founding in 1985, HSPRD has advocated for the legal rights of Latinos in Illinois and throughout our country. We are leaders in defending the immigration rights of Latinos and their families, the rights of Latino workers to be free from discrimination in employment and to be paid the wages owed to them under the law, and the civil and political rights of Latinos and their communities.
One of the cases we take great pride in is the Ramirez-Cruz v. United States, a lawsuit in which HSPRD led a team of attorneys from five cities seeking to recover unpaid wages for Mexican contract laborers, known as braceros workers, who worked in the U.S. during World War II. A historic settlement not only provided compensation to our clients but also was the catalyst for reparations programs that made additional compensation available to thousands of Mexican citizens who worked as Braceros from 1947 to 1964. The presiding federal judge commended HSPRD for its persistence in litigating the rights of our clients. “I want to tell you,” the judge said, “I’ve never seen such litigation in 11 years on the bench that was more difficult than this one. It was enormously challenging….I actually expected, to tell you the truth, at some point, that the plaintiffs would just give up because it was so hard, but they never did….They achieved a settlement of the case, which I find remarkable under all of these circumstances.”
HSPRD is committed to supporting non-profit organizations dedicated to defending and expanding the legal and political rights of Latinos in the United States. We pledge in the future to continue our legal advocacy on behalf of Latinos and their communities.
