A new program from the Puente Human Rights Movement, known as Al Cien, has officially begun its restoration of rights services for former inmates in Arizona.
The Al Cien restoration of rights program is the most recent development in the Puente’s civil and human rights movement that seeks to provide essential services to those in need in the Phoenix community. The movement is accepting volunteers for service hours, as well as to those who want to get involved with their organization.
According to a statement on Al Cien’s campaign page, Puente is “determined to beat the system and get your rights restored so we can have a greater influence on the decisions made about our lives.”
Media Contact for the Puente Movement Noemi Romero said that Al Cien, which began in January 2021, inspired Puente to be more actively engaged with civil rights issues.
“What we do with Al Cien is we have monthly clinics where we take appointments in, and people come and we help them fill out their application to restore their rights,” Romero said.
Through the submission of the restoration of rights form, a convicted felon that has completed their sentence and probation may receive restoration of their civil rights. Participants may also receive fingerprint clearance cards. Once approved by the Superior Court of the county in which the felony was committed, a participant may also reapply to be able to reobtain their voting and gun rights.
Romero said that the template that they use in order to help participants fill out the form is relatively new, so it still requires some modifications and adjustments as necessary.
Romero added that due to the Al Cien program’s recent beginning, as well as the Puente Movement’s limited capacity to schedule these meetings, the program has not been able to reach as many participants as they would desire. So far, the program has helped five convicted felons submit their restoration of rights form.
The program has had a significant amount of attention, but they are still developing the program in order to accommodate more meetings per month than their current one available clinic date. There is a significant number of people that want to restore their rights with the help of the Al Cien program, so Puente hopes to expand their available appointments in the near future.
“We can get more of these people who want to do this to come in so that we can help them out,” Romero said.
The Puente Movement originally began its services with the defense of day laborers who were experiencing wage theft from their employers but has also adopted a focus on immigration issues.
For the past 14 years, the organization has been actively aiding disadvantaged groups in Arizona through fighting against SB1070, which is a broad and strict illegal immigration policy.
Puente’s related program helps educate people on their rights and offers services to a legal clinic that aids undocumented immigrants facing deportation.
In addition to human rights services, the organization managed to reunite families held in ICE detention facilities. On the side, this operation would also send people known as “cop watchers” to film potentially discriminatory police activity in the area.
“We would have somebody out there filming so that then we could have these stories on things like ‘this is the way the police are acting and this is the way they are mistreating our community,’” Romero said.
Romero said that although the organization runs multiple campaigns for different causes, Al Cien holds a special place because of its core purpose: giving convicted felons a second chance at restoring their rights.
The next Al Cien clinic will be held on Saturday, April 24 from 9 am to 2 pm. For more information on the Puente Movement or to sign up for one of the clinics, visit their website at puenteaz.org.
Contact the reporter at emrosale@asu.edu
