Cesar A. Perales
Cesar A. Perales is one of the founders of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, now known as LatinoJustice PRLDEF. He currently serves as President and General Counsel.
Under his leadership, LatinoJustice PRLDEF has litigated impact cases that have improved the way Latinos are treated in our society. These cases have established the right to bilingual education, struck down civil service requirements keeping Latinos from public employment, and eliminated barriers to government benefits for non-English speakers. In 1975 Congress amended the Voting Rights Act to include the right to bilingual ballots – a right established by LatinoJustice PRLDEF in New York in 1973.
In recent years, LatinoJustice PRLDEF has been at the forefront of challenging anti-immigrant laws. LatinoJustice PRLDEF won a major victory against the Town of Brookhaven, NY when a judge ruled that the town had to halt its policy of selectively enforcing its housing code laws against Latino households and its practice of evicting tenants without prior notice. LatinoJustice’s case against Hazleton, PA’s anti-immigrant ordinance was the first of its kind to go to a full trial, and ended with a federal judge issuing the precedent-setting ruling that immigration legislation is a matter reserved to the federal government. LatinoJustice PRLDEF attorneys were among the first to challenge violent early morning raids of private homes by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. LatinoJustice PRLDEF has also filed a unique petition with the Inter American Commission on Human Rights, arguing that the United States’ aggressive immigration enforcement policies create a climate that fosters bias crimes.
Mr. Perales was former Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services for New York City under Mayor David Dinkins and was Commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services under Governor Mario Cuomo. He was confirmed by the Senate as Assistant Secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services under President Jimmy Carter.
The son of a Puerto Rican father and a Dominican mother, Mr. Perales received his bachelor’s degree from City College and is a graduate of Fordham Law School.