The Latino Victory Project, the Center for Community Change Action and America’s Voice were among the beneficiaries of a new $15 million investment in mobilizing Latino and other immigrant voters by a coalition of funders led by George Soros, who put up $5m. The investments, distinct from the Open Society Foundations, will be largely concentrated in Florida, Colorado, and Nevada—states with substantial Latino and immigrant communities that stand to play a potentially significant role in deciding the 2016 presidential race as well as influence the fight for control of the Senate.

Republicans met for their 12th debate of the 2016 cycle in Miami, ahead of Tuesday’s primary contests in Florida, Ohio, and Illinois, among other delegate-rich states. The tenor was more substantive than other recent showdowns, even if the substance often rested on shaky factual ground. But the comparatively civil contest was eclipsed by growing controversy over the treatment of protesters and reporters at Trump rallies, which has descended into racial violence and hooliganism in recent days. Advocates rallied to protest Trump’s comments that “Islam hates us.”

Republicans countered President Obama’s final push to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay with a resolution, signed by 15 GOP senators (including presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio), calling for ISIS fighters in U.S. custody be sent to the island prison.  

Sen. Lindsey Graham acknowledged that the GOP’s refusal to hold hearings on a nominee to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was without precedent, and would have a deleterious effect on the already badly frayed relations between Democrats and Republicans—but stuck to the party line anyway. President Obama offered a few thoughts on what he's looking for in the selection process, without indicating when he might forward a name to Capitol Hill. Advocates pass around a running list documenting the pressure campaign urging the Senate to act:

    Letter from over 250 business lawyers, 3/10/16
    Letter from 21 State Attorneys General, 3/9/16
    Letter from leading constitutional experts and historians, 3/6/16
    Letter from diverse bar associations representing almost 200,000 lawyers, judges and legal professionals across the country, 3/10/16
    Letter from 40 of the nation’s most preeminent Latino advocacy organizations, 3/9/16
    Letter from 350 law professors and legal scholars, 3/8/16

Tensions mounted in the showdown between Apple and the FBI, as the government filed a brief that the technology company complained read “like an indictment.” The two are battling over Apple’s refusal to comply with a request from the bureau to help unlock an iPhone belonging to Syed Farook, one of the two assailants in the San Bernardino attacks. Apple took its case to the viewers of Univision, in a move interpreted as an attempt to build political support among Latinos for the tech company’s position. Grantee the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned its members that the stance the FBI is taking has support elsewhere, pointing to a bill in the California legislature that would disable encryption on all smartphones.

Among other grantee activities:

--OSPC grantee Human Rights First put out a press release in support of an Obama administration initiative to increase the transparency of its lethal counterterrorism strikes, while urging the administration to go further in what it discloses.  

--Human Rights First also helped publicize data showing that children without representation in deportation proceedings are kicked out of the country 90 percent of the time.

--Kids in Need of Defense wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times, amplifying coverage that pointed out the urgent need to provide legal counsel to unaccompanied minors fleeing violence in Central America.

--The National Immigration Law Center helped shape post-Democratic debate coverage of how Hillary Clinton would go well beyond the Obama administration in its pledge to curtail deportation of undocumented persons.

--ReThink Media helped with the message framing of the protests, led by the Council on American Islamic Relations, of Trump’s latest Islamophobic remarks.