ACLU to open office in Las Cruces

By |

The American Civil Liberties Union has hired a new director to oversee a new Las Cruces office that will focus on immigration issues.

Maria Nape is the new director.

“I am thrilled to head up such an exciting and timely initiative for the ACLU,” Nape said. “The intensification of law enforcement on the border and growing reactionary attitudes towards immigrants around the country make the ACLU’s new border rights office a vital effort.”

Prior to joining the ACLU, Nape spent five years advocating for the rights of migrant farmworkers as director of an organization in Indiana and, before that, as executive director of a farmworker council in Florida. She received her law degree from Indiana University and most recently served on the faculty of Florida Atlantic University’s School of Public Administration.

“Maria is a tremendous addition to our organization,” said ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director Peter Simonson. “Her combination of legal experience and familiarity with the plight of immigrants will enable her to effectively lead the ACLU’s efforts in this new endeavor.”

When fully outfitted, the new ACLU office in Las Cruces will house a staff of three who, in tandem with the National ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, will support the border rights work of ACLU affiliates in Texas, Arizona and San Diego. The office is part of a state-wide expansion of the ACLU’s facilities and a national ACLU plan to raise its capacity in the middle part of the country to equal that of its organizations on the wealthier and more populous coasts.

“Current reactionary laws against immigrants are not working,” Nape said. “Nowhere is this more true than on the border. People are searched, deported and sometimes even assaulted on the presumption that they are immigrants and in this country illegally. The goal of our border office is to combat these un-American practices and ensure that fairness and the promise of the Bill of Rights extends to everyone in the border region, regardless of their nation of origin.”

Comments are closed.