LINCOLN, Neb. – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nebraska has launched a new rights awareness campaign with a message aimed at Nebraskan immigrants: “all of us have rights and all of us belong.”
Drivers will see ACLU of Nebraska billboards in Fremont, Grand Island, Lexington and South Omaha through December with a message in Arabic, English, Mandarin, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese. Radio ads in Spanish are now running on Fiesta 94.5 and Lobo 97.7. Staff members have also been handing out multilingual information on immigrants’ rights at community cultural events.
The ads and information point people to a section of the ACLU of Nebraska’s website - aclunebraska.org/immigrant - for information regarding their rights in relation to housing, the workplace and interactions with police or immigration officials.
ACLU of Nebraska Senior Legal and Policy Counsel Rose Godinez said the goal is making sure that immigrants in Nebraska feel both well informed and welcomed.
“It is important that immigrant Nebraskans understand they are essential to the fabric of our communities and that their rights must be respected and defended,” Godinez said. “Our message is clear: all of us have rights and all of us belong, regardless of immigration status. We will continue to make sure that all 140,000 immigrants who call Nebraska home truly feel at home and know that the ACLU of Nebraska is dedicated to ensuring they feel protected and respected.”
Immigrants’ rights are a major focus area for the ACLU of Nebraska. In recent years, the civil rights organization has investigated law enforcement agencies’ language accessibility, advocated for increased pandemic assistance for immigrant communities, published a comprehensive review of case law impacting immigrants in Nebraska and filed a lawsuit for access to Department of Homeland Security records on a Nebraska immigration raid.
