CHAPTER 19.  LATINO COMMISSION

§1221.  Legislative findings

A.  The legislature recognizes that there has been a dramatic increase over the past five years in the number of first and second generation Latin Americans who have made a home in Louisiana; this change is reflected in the forty-five percent increase in the Hispanic population of Louisiana between 2000 and 2007 according to the Pew Hispanic Center's tabulations of United States census data.

B.  The legislature further recognizes that residents who have recently arrived from Central and South America were and continue to be instrumental in the state's efforts to rebuild infrastructure and communities that were decimated by Hurricane Katrina and the other catastrophic hurricanes that have hit Louisiana.

C.  The legislature further recognizes that there are particular challenges associated with delivering government services to these recent arrivals; challenges  that stem from a lack of awareness of the availability of services, language barriers, and other real world complexities.

D.  The legislature further recognizes that this nation and its individual states have been overcoming such challenges throughout our history; we have always been a nation comprised of people of many cultures.

E.  The legislature concludes from these findings that, at this point in history, the state has an obligation to make a concerted effort to reach out to these newly arrived residents of our state, many of whom have been so crucial to our survival of recent tragedies, to make sure they have access to all of the guidance and assistance the legislature intends to be made available to all residents of the state.

Acts 2009, No. 141, §1, eff. June 25, 2009; Acts 2010, No. 599, §1.