FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 3, 2003 Lisa Navarrete
Cecilia Muñoz
202-785-1670

NCLR STATEMENT ON THE ESTRADA NOMINATION

Washington, DC - The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, today reiterated that it neither supports nor opposes the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Unfortunately, the New York Times incorrectly reported on January 31 that NCLR was among the organizations opposing Mr. Estrada’s nomination. Though the Times printed a correction in its February 1st edition, the article has created sufficient confusion that it has become necessary to clarify the record.

NCLR sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September of 2002 which conveyed its concern that there are a number of important unanswered questions about Mr. Estrada’s views with respect to areas of law that are central to the rights of the nation’s 41 million Latinos. These issues, which include racial profiling, immigration policy and workers rights, are matters of fundamental importance to the Latino community and to this organization.

We asked the Committee to seek clarification of those views in order to inform its vote on the nomination. To date, these serious questions remain unanswered. Thus, as NCLR does not have sufficient information to assess Mr. Estrada’s candidacy and, after consulting with the Executive Committee of our Board of Directors this past weekend, we believe that we can neither fairly nor accurately judge the merits of the Estrada nomination.

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