Policy Briefs + Publications

For much of this decade, immigration has been an important topic on the public agenda. Nowhere is that more true than in California. The state is home to 9.9 million immigrants, its governor is an immigrant, and it is a border state on the front lines of the debate over immigration reform.

When it comes to ensuring that the economic stimulus and recovery process promotes equal opportunity for all communities, the law is strong, but it is up to communities to uphold and enforce that law.

This report offers new and crucial information to the Governor and the Legislature as they consider what steps to take to ensure access to quality health care for everyone in the State.

This is the 2007 update to the State of Opportunity report.  There are two files, the full chart of indicators and a summary.

If the promise of opportunity is a core national commitment, it is essential to measure our success in fulfilling that commitment.  This report assesses the nation’s progress toward protecting and expanding opportunity for all Americans and encourages our policymakers, through bold leadership and innovative policies, to ensure the promise of o

This fact sheet reviews threats to opportunity in the Gulf Coast region and the nation. It also draws upon a range of research and reporting on pre- and post-Hurricane Katrina conditions to distill some key lessons from the storm.

This fact sheet reviews the history of disinvestment in FEMA and offers recommendations for rebuilding our national infrastructure for safety and opportunity.

This fact sheet reviews evidence of housing-opportunity barriers both prior to and after the storm, and summarizes some effective policies to reduce these barriers and expand opportunity.

Originally conceived as a “shadow report” to the 2007 U.S. Periodic Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, this report was written by a coalition of experts in the fields of health policy and environmental justice, including academics and members of civil society organizations working to advance the right to health and the right to a healthy environment in the United States.

The Opportunity Agenda commissioned a media analysis of broadcast news and talk radio, a gap in our previous scans which focused only on print media.

This analysis of the interviews in California and Illinois addresses how fifty policy leaders see human rights issues at the state level.

This research project examined the opinion of three key audiences on human rights in the U.S. as applied to social justice issues:  the American public, social justice advocates not currently using the human rights approach, and journalists who regularly cover social issues.

The state of health care in the United States is in serious disrepair. Prosperous though it is, the U.S. is the only industrialized country with no universal access to health care, resulting in over 45 million uninsured Americans. Universal and equal access to high quality healthcare is essential to fulfilling the American ideal of opportunity for all. It is also the human right of all people, simply by virtue of their humanity. Bringing this human right home to the United States is therefore crucial to realizing the American Dream.

This report analyzes Spanish speaking and Hispanic media coverage of immigration issues.

This basic primer was written by Loren Siegel based on her work managing the American Civil Liberties Union's public opinion research program during her tenure as Public Education Director (1991-2001).