Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. January 22, 2002 Mr. Kenneth L. Zwick Director Office of Management Programs, Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 Re: September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 Dear Mr. Zwick: The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. ("PRLDEF") is a national non-profit civil rights organization founded in 1972. It seeks to ensure the equal protection of the laws and to protect the civil rights of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos through litigation and policy advocacy. As an organization dedicated to advancing and securing the rights of Latinos, PRLDEF is deeply concerned that the Interim Final Rules proposed by the Special Master to implement the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (the "Fund") may discriminate against minority and female victims of September 11th by the use of race-based and gender- based calculations. We write to let you know that we are immensely troubled by even the suggestion that the government would consider using such discriminatory criteria to determine eligibility for disaster assistance. In addition, we urge you to seriously consider and give great weight to the detailed comments submitted to you on this date by the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. Located just blocks from the tragic events that occurred in New York on September 11th , PRLDEF has been working in a variety of ways to offer support and assistance to those directly affected by these events. In October, PRLDEF began offering translation and support services to the many non-English speaking Latino immigrant claimants seeking assistance at the lower Manhattan disaster relief center. Realizing the need for these services were greater than PRLDEF s small staff could handle, PRLDEF has provided training to close to two hundred volunteer translators who have in turn assisted hundreds of claimants. In addition, PRLDEF is collaborating with other groups who are working with immigrant families affected by the tragedy to ensure that the needs of this population are not overlooked. Through this work we have observed that non-English speaking immigrants are disproportionately denied assistance for what we believe to be discriminatory reasons. Various estimates place the number of Latinos dead or missing at about 1,200 victims and although the exact number may be hard to pinpoint it is clear that Latinos have been deeply impacted by this tragedy. It would be adding insult to injury if Latino families, who are already facing discrimination as they are attempting to have their basic needs met at the family assistance centers, are also discriminated against by the federal government by the use of race-based distribution of funds. A move in this direction is contrary to the letter and spirit of our nation s civil rights laws and would negate decades of advancements that PRLDEF and other civil rights groups have fought hard to achieve. We urge you not to follow this path and to consider other means of determining eligibility that are nondiscriminatory. Sincerely, Comment by: Puerto Rican Legal Defense And Education Fund September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-02-05 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojP000015.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-02-05