September 05, 2018
September 5, 2018
Lansing, MI-The Michigan Department of Civil Rights (MDCR) today announced the appointment of Mariza Gamez-Garcia as a community relations specialist.
Gamez-Garcia comes to the department with a plethora of experience on various matters related to migrant and seasonal farmworkers, child labor, wage theft, and other related issues. As an attorney, her private practice work included immigration issues as well as criminal and civil work. She spent over 12 years working with Migrant Legal Aid of Grand Rapids. In that position she assisted in developing programming to address wage theft, labor trafficking, Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and access to the court system.
She holds a Juris Doctorate from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, and an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice from University of Central Florida as well as a member of the State Bar of Michigan.
She will be working from the Department’s Lansing office covering the state of Michigan in engaging communities and in addressing matters related to migrant and seasonal farmworkers, the undocumented and refugee populations as well as tackling hate/bias issues directed at the Hispanic/Latino population.
“Mariza Gamez-Garcia is an exciting addition to the Department and our ongoing work affecting the civil rights of Hispanics/Latinos in Michigan,” said Dr. Agustin V. Arbulu, director of MDCR. “She brings the legal know how and community involvement we need to step up our work primarily in Hispanic/Latino communities in Michigan, whether in rural or urban settings, who are feeling threatened and have nowhere to turn or how to respond.”
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