This innovative video program was developed in consultation with immigration and criminal defense attorneys, law enforcement officials, community outreach workers, and people from the Spanish-speaking community who, in their own words, tell newcomers the reality of life in the United States.

For more information, please click this link

An “American Dream” by any other name would be as sweet…

“America,” says one hopeful Mexican immigrant at the beginning of El Sueno Americano (The American Dream), “–that’s where God lives.”

For newcomers to our country, this may not seem like an outrageous claim. Life in America can be exhilarating. When immigrants finally get here from Mexico, and Central and South America, the possibility for improving their lives seems closer to becoming a reality than ever. Everywhere are signs that success is within the grasp of ordinary people like themselves. They may start to think that they’ve finally got it made.

Exciting, exhilarating—without a doubt. But life in America is also complicated and overwhelming even for those who were born here. For people who speak no English and have little familiarity with American culture, the pitfalls are many and may easily spell disaster.

Of all the possible immigrant nightmares, which is the worst? That’s easy: running afoul of Immigration and/or the Police.

Waking From The Nightmare

Help has now arrived in the form of the film El Sueno Americano (The American Dream). In a clear, declarative style, aided by Spanish voiceover and English subtitles, the award-winning El Sueno (New York Festival and Telly Award Finalist) teases apart the tangle of potential problems that can easily result from not understanding one’s obligations and rights where these two institutions are concerned.

With many states proposing and adopting more stringent policies aimed at identifying, prosecuting and deporting illegal immigrants, it is more important than ever that those who are here legally be well schooled in advance. Immigrants must not only know what information they are bound to give to authorities but what they are legally protected from divulging. If an immigrant fails to understand the issues and the questions before they are raised, the most innocent-seeming slip can bring dreams of American happiness success crashing down.

Covering All The Bases

To get the most versatile and universally helpful information, the producers of El Sueno Americano have solicited the expertise of dozens of professionals on both sides of the border. These experts offer no-nonsense solutions about confusing issues such as the role of the often unscrupulous “notarios.”

A notario is substantially different from the American “notary public.” That difference can be very difficult to grasp. And, as this film stresses, there are unscrupulous sorts who would exploit the confusion. Many an unsuspecting immigrant has his or her life savings because of a simple lack of understanding.

The Voice Of Experience

The information presented in this film is detailed and exhaustive and as comprehensive as a manual. And yet it is also salted with real-life stories told by immigrants who have already successfully navigated paths through these complicated institutions. This personal approach is likely the most compelling aspect of this film. These stories will resonate powerfully with any newcomer and help alleviate the fear that is part of any immigrant’s story.

To order this program, please visit the Intermedia Website

When Legal Momentum, a U.S. advocacy group that works with all aspects of gender in the legal system, started its National Judicial Education Programme in 1980, gender discrimination was an unacknowledged problem in the country’s courtrooms.

Thirty years later, the New York-based NJEP has produced dozens of reports and educational programmes for U.S. judges and lawyers, including an authoritative 500-page handbook on gender discrimination in the legal system.

Link to the rest of the article

While there are still obvious issues of gender discrimination in our courts, groups like Legal Momentum deserve credit for helping make our courts more equitable.

Introduced in Congress by Representative Barbara Lee (CA) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (NJ), The Responsible Education About Life Act authorizes federal funding for comprehensive, medically accurate sex education for teens.

In Wisconsin. there is proposed legislation that grants judges the discretion to order GPS monitoring on high-risk individuals who have protective orders placed against them.

Via Newsday: In New York State, a proposed bill gives survivors of child sexual abuse the ability to seek civil damages beyond the normal seven-year statute of limitations.

Washington, DC (March 3, 2009) /PRNewswire/ — One in three women worldwide experience violence in their lifetime, and in the U.S., a woman is assaulted every nine seconds. Around the world, services for victims are often vastly underfunded or unavailable, and in many countries, laws to protect women do not exist or are not enforced.

In response, the Avon Foundation for Women today announced meaningful new efforts to eradicate violence against women and help ensure justice for all women worldwide. This included a $1.5 million grant by the Avon Foundation for Women to launch the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School. This new center will focus on working with judges, legal professionals, governmental and non-governmental organizations to improve access to justice in an effort to eliminate violence against women and girls. Avon also expanded its relationship with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) with a new commitment of $250,000 for the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, which will be added to the grant of $1 million awarded in 2008 for the Trust Fund

Link to the announcement.