The U.S. Justice Department wants a judge to declare that a Pennsylvania city’s method of electing council members citywide instead of by districts has illegally diluted the political power of its growing Hispanic population, arguing in a lawsuit that Hazleton is violating the federal Voting Rights Act.

A complaint filed Tuesday in Scranton federal court claims the “at-large” system “results in Hispanic citizens not having an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice.”

A Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit alleges that Hazleton, Pennsylvania’s city council elections violate federal law because not enough “Hispanic-preferred candidates” are winning – without defining what a Hispanic-preferred candidate is.

 In 1903, my grandfather Prudencio Unanue – like millions of immigrants – embarked on a journey to America with a suitcase full of dreams. He opened a small grocery store in Manhattan, which he transformed into Goya Foods, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States. This is a testament to the American Dream, which flourished alongside the Hispanic community.

The story of the 2024 election is looking deeply strange.

Donald Trump boasts a small but significant lead over Joe Biden in national polls, while also besting the president in most surveys of battleground states. By itself, this is less than shocking. Voters have long disapproved of the president, lamented inflation, and expressed more faith in Trump’s capacity to manage the economy.

If the Trump coalition’s formidable size is unsurprising, however, the same can’t be said of its demographic composition. 

NEW YORK – Former President Trump has broken political norms by visiting one of the most deep-blue areas in New York City, a town not necessarily known for its kindness to Republicans.

Trump rallied a crowd of what his campaign estimated to be 25,000 supporters at Crotona Park in the Bronx on Thursday, far more than the initial 3,500 it said were expected to attend. Those numbers appeared to also include those lined up outside the event – who waited hours for a shot at getting inside even after the event began.

Miles from the rather somber Manhattan courtroom where he has spent much of the past five weeks as a criminal defendant, former President Donald J. Trump on Thursday stood at a park in the Bronx, surveyed the crowd and acknowledged he had been concerned over how he might be greeted at his first rally in New York State in eight years, and his first ever in the borough.

Former President Donald Trump told a crowd of thousands of diverse supporters in the South Bronx on Thursday evening that he would offer his help to New York's Democratic leaders if he's reelected president in November.

President Joe Biden is heading into 2024 with concerning numbers among Hispanic voters: A new USA Today/Suffolk survey shows him trailing Donald Trump by five percentage points, with many reluctant to back either candidate. While it’s an especially rough poll, others have also shown him struggling to match his 2020 numbers with a key swath of the Democratic base — and Hispanic leaders say they’re seeing the same problems on the ground.