A District-based nonprofit group filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Manassas over what it calls a “systematic effort to target, discriminate against and evict the city’s Hispanic residents.”
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Virginia by the Equal Rights Center and eight Hispanic residents of the small city, claims city officials illegally obtained confidential student data and used it to target Hispanic households for aggressive overcrowding inspections.
Inspectors, the suit further alleges, used intimidating tactics only when in Hispanic households “including having police officers present and conductingnighttime inspections.” The Equal Rights Center called the practice unconstitutional and a violation of civil rights and housing laws.
“I think it’s an attempt to reduce the Hispanic population in Manassas, or at the very least to keep it from growing,” said Rabbi Bruce E. Kahn, the center’s executive director. “What they’re doing is not only unjust and illegal discrimination but in many instances they’ve done things to make people terribly afraid to be there.”
Neither Mayor Douglas Waldron nor City Attorney Robert W. Bendall could be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.
