Latinos Face Abuse, Discrimination in South

According to a report released by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Latinos living in the South are becoming increasingly afraid of their surroundings. Because of negative feelings towards illegal immigrants in some southern states, Latinos have experienced police harassment, wage theft, racial profiling and workplace abuse.

Many Latinos who are legitimate American immigrants also feel the wrath of employers and neighbors, living in the South. According to the survey, women in the workforce have to suffer with extremely high rates of sexual harassment and abuse, because their employers know that they can take advantage of them by threatening to call the IRA and request their deportation.

They also complain of inadequate attention from the police. They have filed reports of police pulling them over for no reason, while not responding to their reports of abuse. This makes them easy targets for criminals, who know that the police are not willing to help out the immigrant populations.

• Nearly 50 percent of respondents knew someone who had been treated unfairly by police.
• 77 percent of the women who responded said sexual harassment was a major workplace problem.
• 41 percent surveyed had not been paid for work, a figure that climbed to 80 percent in New Orleans.
• Two-thirds of respondents said they had been made to feel unwelcome by others in the community, while 68 percent said they encountered on a regular basis what they perceived as racism -- from "looks" to physical abuse.
• 46 percent have confidence in police.
• 46 percent with court experience say there were no interpreters.