Asian Americans Advancing Justice - LA

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In the News

Fox LA: Visas for eleven victims of human trafficking

Jun 10 2016

Eleven Filipino guest workers now have visas to work in the U.S. The workers, as one says, are "survivors" of human trafficking.

Earlier, they won a 15-million dollar judgment again L'Amande French Bakery. Their attorney says the Torrance and Beverly Hills bakeries are now closed.

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New America Media: Celebrities Urge Asian American Pacific Islanders to Vote

May 31 2016

Actors George Takei, John Cho, Constance Wu, Sonal Shah, Vincent Rodriguez III, and Joey Quenga are joining forces in a new campaign to urge Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to vote.

Despite being the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, the AAPI participation in the voting process lags behind other groups.

Asian American voter registration has increased 600,000 per presidential election cycle. The number of congressional candidates from the Asian American community increased from 10 in 2010 to 40 in 2016.

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KPCC: In this political year, will Asian-American voters step up to the polls?

May 25 2016

In a small downtown Los Angeles office one May evening, Helen Xiang and her teenage son Sam sat side by side, calling a list of Chinese-American registered voters. 

Sam spoke in English and his mother in Mandarin, but their message was the same: get to the polls June 7 and vote in the state primary.

“We have to encourage our people to speak out," said Xiang, a 52-year-old Alhambra resident. "Your ballot is really important.”

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ABS-CBN News: Tagalog Helpline Provides Legal Assistance to Pinoys

May 25 2016

LOS ANGELES – After 30 years of defending civil rights, Asian Americans Advancing Justice launched a Tagalog helpline to extend their reach of legal services to the Filipino community in Los Angeles.

"We think this Tagalog legal help will help open up services and provide better opportunities so people can get jobs. We know that Filipino-Americans want to be U.S. citizens. There's a relatively good naturalization rate," said executive director of AAAJ LA Stewart Kwoh.

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NBC News: Complaint Filed Against Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown Alleging Discrimination

May 23 2016

The complaint, drafted by the Asian American Coalition for Education, accuses the three Ivy League schools of denying admission to Asian-American students with near-perfect SAT scores and GPAs in the top one percent while accepting applicants of other races with similar accolades. The groups also allege that racial quotas and caps are used to maintain "ideal racial balances" that have kept the percentage of Asian-American students at these schools unchanged over the last two decades.

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NBC News: Bakery Owners Defiant Despite Court Order to Pay $15 Million in Human Trafficking Suit

May 19 2016

In their first public comment since a federal court ordered them to pay $15.3 million in damages to 11 workers, the owners of the Los Angeles-area L'Amande bakeries insist they are the ones being victimized in the ordeal.

"The default judgment is a miscarriage of justice, brought about by the abuse of both the justice and immigration systems by the plaintiffs and their lawyers," Analiza Moitinho de Almeida told NBC News in an e-mail.

Almeida contends the suit was a ploy by the workers to enrich themselves and change their immigration status.

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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.