U.S. Attorney: We need to protect the civil rights of our service members | Opinion

As the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, I serve as the chief federal law enforcement officer for 35 counties in Florida. One of my responsibilities is ensuring that the rights of the brave men and women of our Nation’s Armed Forces, and the veterans who have served in the past, are safeguarded from discrimination and unfair treatment.

This is an obligation that my office takes seriously. Several federal laws have been enacted to protect servicemembers, veterans, and their families to ensure that military service does not interfere with their ability to own or rent a residence, to exercise their right to vote, or to return to civilian employment after a deployment.  These are important protections, and the Justice Department ― through the Civil Rights Division and my office ― is committed to ensuring that these civil rights are protected through enforcement and litigation, education and outreach, and policy coordination and development.

The Middle District of Florida is home to many service members, veterans, and family members who may be in need of this type of assistance. Florida is among the top five States in the country in the number of active duty and reserve members who live here. Florida has more than 57,000 active duty and 36,000 reserve forces, and the Florida National Guard has 128 Military Units consisting of approximately 12,000 Guard Members.

To protect the civil rights of the men and women who have dedicated their lives to protecting our country, the Justice Department created the Servicemembers and Veterans Initiative. The primary goal of this initiative is to expand outreach and training efforts to educate those whose decisions can wrongfully impact service members, veterans, and their families, and to enforce the laws through litigation for those who do not comply.

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My office has been an active participant in these efforts, and we have already had some great successes in recovering restitution and stopping practices that violate civil rights protections. But, we want to do more.

Recently, I visited MacDill Air Force Base to meet with service members to learn firsthand from them how my office can enhance our efforts to protect their civil rights. From those conversations, we came away with several great ideas to improve and expand our outreach efforts and the legal services that we provide.

I also used my visit to take the opportunity to announce the formation of a Servicemembers and Veterans Working Group for the Middle District of Florida. One of the key objectives of this working group will be to establish and coordinate a network of local, state, and federal partners that can provide comprehensive legal support and civil rights protection for service members, veterans, and their families.  Another goal will be to improve our outreach efforts to be able to find those service members, veterans, and family members who may be in need of assistance.

There are three primary civil rights statutes that will be the focus of these efforts. One is the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which protects military members and their families when dealing with home foreclosures, vehicle repossessions, leasing agreements, evictions, excessive interest rates, and default judgments. A second is the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which ensures that service members and their families are able to vote by absentee ballot in federal elections when living away from home on military orders. And a third is the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on military service and entitles reservists to return to their civilian employment with the same seniority, status, and rate of pay that they would have had if they had not left to serve.

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My office has assembled a team of attorneys and other employees who are committed to focusing on these cases. Anyone who wants to contact my office about a potential case or for more information is encouraged to email us at USAFLM.Civil.Rights@usdoj.gov.  You can also learn more about the federal laws protecting servicemembers and veterans at www.servicemembers.gov.  Our goal is to ensure that service members, veterans, and their families are able to enjoy the rights and freedoms for which they have so valiantly sacrificed.

Roger B. Handberg is the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: U.S. Attorney protecting the civil rights of our service members