In an unparalleled move to address the legal issues of Hispanics in the United States, the American Bar Association(ABA) under the new leadership of Stephen N. Zack, a Cuban-American lawyer from Miami will announce on Monday the formation of the Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights. Zack stated that the ABA is yet to find out the facts and it needs to be seen if the system is functioning or not functioning to ensure that Hispanics are completely integrated and treated equally within the justice system.He would officially announce the consequences once he becomes ABA’s first American President at the group’s annual convention in San Francisco.
The ABA commission which is to be headed by Miami lawyer Cesar L. Alvarez, also a Cuban-American, will conduct public hearings in chief U.S. cities with Hispanic populations to study whether the legal system is addressing the needs of the country's leading and fastest developing minority.
Several Hispanics in a cross-section of fields will be named in the coming weeks to the new commission, Zack and Alvarez said.
Once the public hearings are held and the legal issues studied, the conclusion would be gathered into a report similar in scope to the one issued previously this year by ABA's Commission on Immigration. That report, circulating in Washington D.C., proposed a revamp of the deportation system under the Justice Department.
