LEGACY CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS DEMAND SENATE VOTE NO ON ICE AND DHS ENFORCEMENT OPERATION FUNDING AMID FEDERAL LAWLESSNESS AND DEADLY ABUSES IN MINNESOTA

January 26, 2026 – The leaders of the nation's legacy civil rights organizations issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement: 

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NEW YORK (January 16, 2026) — National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial issued the following statement in response to Illinois adopting the Clean Slate Act:

“The National Urban League applauds Governor JB Pritzker, Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth, and Illinois legislators for enacting the Clean Slate Act—one of the most significant criminal justice reforms in the nation and a powerful affirmation of the belief that people deserve the chance to rebuild their lives.

Marc H. Morial 
President and CEO
National Urban League

“Loose and easy language about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

When he signed the legislation that made the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a legal public holiday in 1983, President Ronald Reagan called the Civil Rights Movement a “just cause,” and said “as a democratic people, we can take pride in the knowledge that we Americans recognized a grave injustice and took action to correct it.”

By Jessica Guynn, USA Today

President Donald Trump alleged in a recent interview that civil rights-era policies aimed at remedying historic patterns of racism resulted in White people being "very badly treated."

The president said the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which sought to end race-based discrimination and segregation and provide Black Americans with equal access to education and employment, “accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people."