Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus

Immigration Rights: Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus is committed to an immigration system that keeps families together and does not determine a person's value by their immigration status or whether they have been incarcerated. Recognizing that incarceration, immigration detention and deportation separates families, we focus on legal services on the most vulnerable in the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community - immigrants facing deportation due to criminal convictions. The hundreds of clients we serve each year enable us to quickly identify emerging problem areas and to respond effectively through impact litigation, community education, and advocacy. The team recently finalized a settlement that will prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from illegally using a third-party contractor, G4S Secure Solutions, Inc., to assist people in jails and prisons and funnel them into the deportation pipeline.

Housing: Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus' Housing Rights program advocates on behalf of low-income residents in the areas of housing and community development. We focus primarily on gateway communities for new immigrants, such as San Francisco Chinatown, where large numbers of tenants and seniors are in danger of displacement due to gentrification and other economic pressures. Informed by our direct legal services, we advocate for local and state policies that preserve housing, create affordable housing options, and decrease inequities in housing and land use. During the pandemic, this has included advocating for disbursement of rent relief funds, provision of adequate language assistance throughout the Emergency Rental Assistance Program application process, and consistent procedures statewide.

Voting Rights: Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus' Voting Rights program works to expand access to the democratic process for AAPI, AMEMSA, and other immigrant communities, limited-English speaking Californians, and all those who have been historically disenfranchised. In 2021 and 2022, we led efforts to engage these communities in California's redistricting process, including providing extensive outreach, workshops, and training to help engage people and build their political power, as well as executing the largest nonpartisan poll monitoring program in California.

Criminal Justice Reform: Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus' Criminal Justice Reform program seeks to transform the criminal justice system by advocating for policies that disentangle local law enforcement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), pushing for police reforms and challenging police misconduct, and promoting restorative justice as an alternative to punitive approach to criminal justice. In the past year, our work has included community education, legal representation, and advocacy to advance the VISION Act in California, ensure county compliance with the CA Values Act, and bring community partners together to mobilize for policy change that helps immigrant families stay together.

Workers Rights: Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus has a long history of fighting on behalf of low-income immigrant workers. Our Workers' Rights program provides legal counseling, policy advocacy, direct services, and impact litigation for low-income immigrant workers on a wide range of workplace issues, including race and national origin discirmination, retaliation, wage and hour problems, unemployment insurance benefit appeals, and workplace safety. We also regularly partner with worker centers to support workplace organizing, worker-led campaigns, and the development of immigrant worker leaders. In 2021, we supported Z & Y Restaurant workers and the Chinese Progressive Association and together won a $1.61 million settlement to compensate 22 workers for stolen wages, tips, penalties, and interest. We also advocate for government agencies to provide resources for workers regardless of what language they speak or read and produce know-your-rights and in-language materials to help thousands of workers advocate for themselves.

Asian American Leaders Table: We have convened AAPI community leaders and organizations around the Asian American Leaders Table. Together, we are driving the effort to address the root causes of interpersonal and systemic racism and to provide our partners with resources and tools to help their communities.Value Our Families: We engaged immigrant rights advocates and experts across the country in discussion seeking to reimagine what the US legal immigration system could be designed to support family immigration and respond to the country's economic needs.Anti-Asian Hate: In response to the sharp increase in anti-Asian hate violence this past year, we continue to provide bystander intervention training in partnership with Right to Be to more than 15,000 community members in the Bay Area, empowering individuals and organizations to safely intervene in anti-Asian hate incidents. Statewide, we continue to collaborate with AAPI partners to fund community-led safety solutions with support from California's API Equity Budget.

National Security and Civil Rights: Our programs also pursue the promise of democracy for all, no matter where people are from, what language they speak, or how they pray. Through our National Security & Civil Rights program, we protect the civil rights of individuals and communities unjustly impacted by overbroad national security policies, especially Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) communities. We strive to confront the day-to-day breaches of civil rights to impact the larger social and institutional dynamics that prevent the realization of equal rights, challenge the unjust surveillance of AMEMSA communities in the U.S. and assist families facing discrimination, passport revocation, denaturalization, and other tactics in the name of national security.

Other programs include Sacramento Advocate, Litigation, Communications and Affiliate works.

National Voting Rights: The Affiliation Voting Rights Strategy seeks to empower AAPIs by increasing capacities for voting rights advocacy and civic engagement in AAPI communities across the country, including in geographic areas where AAPI populations are emerging as a potent force in our democracy. Our work includes litigation, legal research and policy advocacy; demographic research, data analysis and mapping; training and consultation on voting rights and election administration issues. In 2021-2022, we worked with each of our affiliates and groups in GA, IL, MI, NM, OH and VA to address fair redistricting, election law compliance, voter education and access to voting.