ORANGE, Calif. - Four civil rights groups filed a motion today on behalf of a racially and ethnically diverse group of parents who support the Capistrano Unified School District's (CUSD) ability to consider race to avoid segregated schools when it redrew attendance boundaries to accommodate the opening of a new high school.

The Capistrano parents, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU/SC), NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), Asian Pacific American Legal Action Center (APALC), and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), are seeking to become part of a lawsuit entitled Neighborhood Schools for Our Kids v. Capistrano Unified School District. The parents are active members of the Capistrano community whose children are currently enrolled in CUSD schools.

In June 2005 an organization opposed to CUSD's assignment policy filed the lawsuit in the Superior Court of California, alleging that the school district violated California law by considering the avoidance of 'racially, ethnically, and socio-economically identifiable schools' as one of nine factors in its decision making process for the school district's new attendance boundaries.

'School districts like CUSD should have the flexibility, when drawing attendance boundaries, to consider race for the purposes of promoting integration and avoiding segregation,' said Hector O. Villagra, director of the ACLU/SC Orange County office. 'The plaintiff's lawsuit is a misguided effort to expand Proposition 209 to forbid public school districts from taking any steps to avoid the operation of racially and ethnically isolated schools.'

Since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, California courts have recognized the harms of racial segregation'regardless of its cause'and the benefits of educating children in integrated settings. So significant are the positive educational and long-term benefits of an integrated public education that for more than 30 years, California state courts have interpreted the state constitution to require school districts to take reasonably feasible steps to avoid segregated schools.

'This case is an effort by opponents of racial and ethnic integration in our public schools to limit the promise of Brown v. Board of Education and turn back the hands of the clock more than a half century,' said LDF Assistant Counsel Anurima Bhargava. 'In reality, the attendance zones adopted for all of the schools are contiguous and maintain the concept of neighborhood schools. No student is required to travel an excessive distance, nor is any individual assignment decision made on the basis of race.'

'It's important that my children attend a school with a diverse population,' said Tareef Nashashibi, one of the parent intervenors in the case. 'My children will be better prepared for the workforce and other experiences in life because they attended diverse schools. I know that had they grown up in another school district they would not have had the same rich experiences.'

Over the past 14 years the school district has built 29 new schools in response to the fast-growing student population and the resultant overcrowding of existing schools. The school district began construction of a new high school in San Juan Capistrano named San Juan Hills High School. Scheduled to open in August 2006, San Juan Hills is the district's sixth high school and likely to be the last high school built in the district in the foreseeable future.

The opening of San Juan Hills High School required the school district to analyze and redraw attendance boundaries to balance high school student enrollment among all of the high schools and to align middle to high school feeder patterns. In accordance with board policy, the school district considered race as one of numerous factors in the drawing of these attendance boundaries, insofar as it was necessary to avoid racially, ethnically and socio-economically identifiable schools. This continued consideration of race is necessary because of persistent residential segregation, with poorer, largely minority neighborhoods increasingly surrounded by expensive beachfront properties and planned communities.

'I send my son and sent my daughter to public school because our local schools are excellent, as measured by state required standardized tests, but also because our schools teach social and moral lessons relating to tolerance and inclusion that my kids might not get in a more homogenous school,' said James Corbett, an intervening parent who also teaches Advanced Placement European History and Advanced Placement Art History at Capistrano Valley High School. 'I believe students who have not learned to work with and respect people from a variety of backgrounds, are severely handicapped in life, not to mention the workplace.'

'The invaluable benefits to all students of learning in a racially and ethnically diverse environment are well-documented,' said Julie A. Su, litigation director of APALC. 'For that reason, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center has long supported the efforts of educational institutions to combat racial segregation.'

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.