Team
Carl Takei
Program Manager and Senior Staff Attorney, Criminal Justice Reform
Carl Takei
Program Manager and Senior Staff Attorney, Criminal Justice Reform
Carl Takei is a Senior Staff Attorney and the Criminal Justice Reform Program Manager at the Asian Law Caucus. Previously, he was a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where he co-led the national organization’s shift toward divesting from police and reinvesting in communities, and fought abuses at the intersections of criminal legal and immigration enforcement systems. He led the ACLU’s successful advocacy work to terminate the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Criminal Alien Requirement” contracts with private prisons, culminating in that agency’s 2016 decision to phase out all of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ private prison contracts.
Carl is also a longtime co-chair of Tsuru for Solidarity, working with other Japanese American advocates and allies to end detention sites and support directly impacted communities. Carl is a graduate of Boston College Law School, and began his legal career as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.
Our Focus
Immigrant and refugee community members should not be targeted and punished simply because they were born in another country. We advocate for policies that disentangle local and state law enforcement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We also push for reforms that diminish the power of the prison-industrial complex, demanding investments in marginalized communities rather than police and the carceral system, challenging police misconduct, and promoting restorative justice as an alternative to punitive approaches in the criminal legal system.
- We advocate for legislation that ends California's collaboration with ICE and stops double punishment of immigrant communities.
- We ensure county compliance with the CA Values Act (SB 54) - California’s sanctuary policy that we helped draft and pass.
- We bring community partners together to mobilize for policy change and help immigrant families stay together.
- We advocate for clemency for immigrant community members facing deportation due to prior convictions.
