LOS ANGELES - Yesterday, hundreds of detained immigrants at the Mira Loma Detention Center held a peaceful demonstration to protest unreasonably long delays in their cases. Many detainees wait weeks to see a judge and months to resolve their immigration cases. During this time, these detainees are separated from their families, who struggle to survive without them. While detainees must be allowed time to prepare their cases where necessary, those seeking a speedy trial should not have to wait for months.

The government admits that it was aware of the backlog and sent officials to speak with the detainees after the protest. What the government should have done is offer the detainees prompt hearings. Instead, it offered to deport them. Sadly, more than one hundred people waived their rights to a hearing and agreed to be deported rather than languish in detention and wait indefinitely to see a judge.

The government told the Supreme Court two years ago that deportation hearings are usually completed within 47 days, and almost always within five months. This tragic incident shows that this is simply not true.

The right to a prompt hearing is fundamental to our justice system. It is unacceptable for the government to keep someone in jail for months on end without seeing a judge - whether in Lancaster, California or Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The government must take measures to ensure prompt access to judges for detained immigrants.

ORANGE, Calif. - The ACLU of Southern California opened its first regional office today in Orange.

'We have been making plans to open an office in Orange County for a while, so we are pleased that the day is finally here,' said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU/SC. 'The ACLU has always monitored civil rights and civil liberties across Orange County, but with a full time staff we will be able to look at access to health care, education equality and immigrant rights more closely in Orange County.'

With more than 5,000 active members, Orange County has one of the highest concentrations of ACLU members in Southern California. The Orange County office is the first ever ACLU office in Orange County.

The Orange County office will report to the Southern California headquarters in Los Angeles. Hector O. Villagra will serve as the director of the office and Belinda Escobosa Helzer as a staff attorney. Nora Preciado was selected for a two-year Equal Justice Works fellowship and Meera Manek will be the community outreach administrator.

'We've already been busy,' Villagra said. 'When we learned that the Orange County registrar scheduled a special election on the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashana, we worked with community leaders to ensure broad access to early voting and absentee voting. We are also working with high school students in Garden Grove who were treated unequally because they are lesbians.'

ACLU/SC Orange County Staff:

Hector Villagra, ACLU/SC Orange County Office Director

Hector is the former Regional Counsel for MALDEF. He managed and supervised MALDEF's legal office serving California, Arizona, and Nevada. A graduate of Columbia University and Columbia Law School, Hector clerked for the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Robert Wilentz, and for 9th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt before joining the law firm of Fried, Frank in New York as a MALDEF fellow.

Belinda Escobosa Helzer, Staff Attorney

Belinda is an Orange County native experienced in civil rights litigation and community organizing. At MALDEF she focused primarily on immigrants rights and employment issues. Belinda is a graduate of Southwestern Law School and clerked for Senior Justice Joseph Baca on the New Mexico Supreme Court. In addition to her legal work, Belinda has volunteered as the Chair of the Major Gift Solicitation Committee to raise funds to restore a historic Orange County public elementary school, and co-founded a program to provide comprehensive services to emancipated foster youth as they transition out of care into adulthood.

Nora Adriana Preciado, Equal Justice Works Fellow

Nora is a recent graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law, where she served as senior projects editor of the California Law Review. She is the recipient of numerous public interest scholarships and grants. During law school she interned at the National ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, and MALDEF, and was a judicial extern for federal district court judge Marilyn Hall Patel. Nora was selected for a two-year fellowship that will concentrate on ensuring that non-English speakers have meaningful access to vital government services, particularly in the area of health care.

Meera Manek, Community Outreach Administrator

Meera is a graduate of UC-Irvine and completed an internship in the ACLU/SC Public Policy Department. She also attended the 2004 National ACLU Membership Conference. Meera serves as president of her local Toastmasters Club. She also interned at the Orange County Human Relations Department and the World Affairs Councils of America in Washington, D.C.

Orange County journalists seeking to contact the new office, should call Elizabeth Brennan at (213) 977-5252.

LOS ANGELES -The ACLU of Southern California and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network entered into an agreement with the Fresno Unified School District to take steps to eliminate anti-gay discrimination from Fresno campuses after receiving multiple complaints from students who were harassed, in some cases by school officials, because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation.

"Our concern is that all students regardless of whether they are gay or straight feel comfortable on campus and that learning is their primary concern while they are at school," said Christine P. Sun, staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California. "We are pleased that the Fresno Unified School District is finally taking action to incorporate education on all biases into its curriculum."

The agreement was reached after the ACLU and the GSA Network were contacted by a parent who for months had unsuccessfully attempted to work with the District to end the discrimination against her son by school administrators. In an email obtained by the student's parent, the District Parent Ombudsman instructed other school officials to "document if [the student] is possibly confused about his sexual preference and suggest ways to train him in appropriate ways of expressing his preferences." In the email, the District Ombudsman also suggested that the student needed "psychological testing."

The agreement creates a comprehensive training and curricular program for administrators and students over the next two years that directly addresses anti-gay bias. The training will start this fall and requires that all administrators, teachers, and some additional staff attend a training session focused primarily on sexual orientation and gender identity diversity, discrimination and harassment.

"Daily harassment against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students is ubiquitous in our schools," said Carolyn Laub, executive director of GSA Network. "We look forward to working with Fresno Unified to take comprehensive steps to solve the problem. Other school districts should take a page from Fresno Unified's lesson book and commit to safety and respect for all."

The trainings will include a live presentation by students who can talk about personal experiences and the adult response to such behavior. The District also agreed to provide mandatory instruction for all high school students focusing exclusively on the subject of preventing harassment and discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.

Fresno students said the program and training sessions would be a positive step forward.

"I think this kind of training will be great for our district," said Frankie Martinez, a senior at Sunnyside High School. "I know how difficult it may be for gay youth like me and I think this will greatly increase tolerance and I believe that things will finally begin to improve."