National Council of La Raza: Topics

Advocacy and Electoral Empowerment

Advocacy and Electoral Empowerment Related Content Related Publications (28) Related News Items (137) Related Events (5) Related FAQs (3) Related Viewpoints (63)

Consistent with its mission to improve opportunities and open doors for Hispanic Americans, NCLR believes that advocacy, civic engagement, and community-based support are essential parts of any community-empowerment strategy. Thus, the organization concentrates on advocacy activities at state and local levels through its State and Local Advocacy Initiatives. In addition, NCLR strengthens Latino participation in the political process through its various civic engagement projects, including the Latino Empowerment and Advocacy Project (LEAP). NCLR also works to strengthen nascent community-based organizations in areas where there is a growing Latino population through a project called the Emerging Latino Communities (ELC) Initiative.

Related Programs

Civic Engagement: Increasing Hispanic participation in the electoral process is critical for NCLR’s mission to improve opportunities and open doors for Hispanic Americans. NCLR’s civic engagement efforts include various projects ranging from citizenship drives, voter mobilization efforts, youth participation projects, and advocacy efforts to address the barriers that prevent Latinos from fully participating in these processes.
Emerging Latino Communities Initiative: The Emerging Latino Communities Initiative (ELC) is a multi-facetted organization development program that seeks to establish organizational infrastructure in communities that have recently seen a dramatic increase in the Latino population. Primarily, ELC focuses in areas of the country where there is currently little Latino or for Latino sub-group organizational infrastructure. Geographic target areas are the Southeast, Northwest, and Midwest, although exceptions are made.
Field Advocacy Project: NCLR’s public policy expertise at the federal level, which includes a number of key issues also significant at the state level, has provided fertile ground for collaboration with state and local groups engaged in education, health, economic mobility, civil rights, and immigration issues, among others. Through its Field Advocacy Project, NCLR hopes to create greater synergy among advocates working at the local, state, and federal levels, to achieve policy reform in areas of interest to the nation's Latino community.

Related Policies

Federal Policies

Voting Rights: The right to vote is a fundamental and basic right guaranteed to all U.S. citizens by the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Every voter has the right to cast an informed and effective vote. This right is extended to all people, including those for whom English is not their first language.

State Policies

State and Local Immigration Initiatives: With the failure of the federal government to pass comprehensive immigration reform, states and localities are playing a more prominent role in immigration regulation.
Driver's Licenses: In recent years there has been much legislation and other activity in the states which impose harsh restrictions specifically on immigrants’ access to state-issued driver’s licenses and identification documents. More recently, the REAL ID Act passed which imposes federal standards on state-issued driver's licenses. NCLR believes that a state-issued DL should be reliable proof of an individual’s identity and proof of authorization to drive a motor vehicle; it should not be tied to an individual’s immigration status.