Asian Americans Advancing Justice - LA

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In the News

Data on Asian American Success Doesn't Tell the Whole Story

Jul 5 2012

Huffington Post

This country's fastest growing racial group, Asian Americans, comes from all walks of life. Some are doctors or lawyers, others work in restaurants or nail salons. Many were born in the United States, most are immigrants. They have roots in countries throughout Asia, including Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The Asian American Center for Advancing Justice (Advancing Justice) and other organizations serving Asian Americans are deeply concerned about how findings from a recent study by the Pew Research Center have been used to portray our communities. While the report, "The Rise of Asian Americans," should be applauded for the attention it provides an often misunderstood racial group, its narrative largely ignores the tremendous social and economic diversity within Asian American communities. Failure to fully recognize the challenge Asian Americans face means that the educational, economic, and social service needs of America's fastest growing racial group will not be fully understood or addressed by policy makers.

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Supreme Court Delivers Mixed Ruling on SB 1070

Jun 29 2012

Indiawest

The Supreme Court June 25 delivered a mixed decision on Arizona’s SB 1070, striking down three provisions but retaining the most contentious part of the legislation which would allow law enforcement officials to demand proof of immigration status from anyone they suspect is undocumented.

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Law professors' letter may have swayed Obama

Jun 26 2012

Winston-Salem Journal

Nearly 100 law professors from top universities nationwide, including Wake Forest University, signed a letter advising President Barack Obama that the executive branch has the authority to defer deportation of young immigrants — just weeks before the president announced plans to do so.

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Asian Americans Respond to Pew: We’re Not Your Model Minority

Jun 21 2012

Colorlines

It’s not every day that deep and rigorous research about Asian Americans is released to the public. So when the well-respected Pew Research Center released “The Rise of Asian Americans,” a comprehensive report on the community on Tuesday, it should have been reason enough to celebrate. Instead, the report, which hailed Asians as the fastest-growing and highest-achieving racial group in the country, drew widespread criticism from Asian American scholars, advocates and lawmakers who raised alarm about the report, and warned against taking it seriously at all. Poor research of an oft-overlooked community, it turns out, might do more damage than no research at all.

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The Civil Rights Lessons of Vincent Chin’s Murder

Jun 20 2012

Colorlines

Vincent Chin would have been 57 today. But the Michigan man never made it out of his 20s. Instead, 30 years ago this week Chin was brutally murdered when he was bludgeoned with a baseball bat wielded by two white, jobless auto workers who thought Chin, a Chinese-American man, was Japanese. “It’s because of you little [expletive] that we’re out of work,” witnesses said Ronald Ebens yelled at Chin before he and his stepson Michael Nitz trailed Chin and attacked him

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Asian American Civil Rights groups applaud DHS relief to DREAMers

Jun 15 2012

Asian Journal

WASHINGTON – The Asian American Center for Advancing Justice—Asian American Institute (AAI), Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC)—applauds the Department of Homeland Security’s new directive that, effective immediately, allows certain DREAMers to be considered for relief from deportation from the country or from entering into deportation proceedings, as long as they do not present a risk to national security or public safety.

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Congress needs to save immigrant women from harm

Jun 14 2012

By Betty M. Song and Amy Woo Lee

The Progressive

Congress needs to pass a version of the Violence Against Women Act that fully protects immigrant women who fall victim to domestic violence.

Consider what happens to thousands of undocumented domestic violence victims now residing in this country, such as Joon, whose name we have changed to protect her identity. But she is a real person. She was our client at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles.

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California primary to have voter page in Hindi

Jun 6 2012

Rediff News

With the goal of inspiring and preparing every eligible citizen to vote, the American state of California has for the first time ever provided a new voter page that carried ballot information in Hindi for the June 5 primary election.

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HELPLINES

Our helplines prioritize assistance to low-income persons in the following areas of law: discrimination, family, immigration, public benefits, employment, housing, and civil rights. 

English: 888.349.9695
中文: 800.520.2356
한글: 800.867.3640
Tagalog: 855.300.2552
ภาษาไทย: 800.914.9583
Tiếng Việt: 714.477.2958

 

Our mission is to advocate for civil rights, provide legal services and education, and build coalitions to positively influence and impact Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders and to create a more equitable and harmonious society.