February 2, 2017
I found out about the Executive Order (EO) banning immigrants and refugees from 7 Muslim-majority countries after we spent the day not-so-coincidentally training 120 lawyers on how to prepare for a possible Muslim registry and a ban on Muslim travel to the US. As an Iranian American, I could see the faces of my family […]
January 15, 2017
Armed with a checklist and a No. 2 pencil, Joyce Xi was standing in a San Francisco polling place when she noticed a voter with a problem. An elderly voter had entered the polling place and was struggling to communicate with a poll worker. “He needed a Vietnamese ballot but the poll workers were making […]
July 20, 2016
Watch our Executive Director, Chris Punongbayan speak on this panel.
June 28, 2016
All eyes were on the Supreme Court for its United States v. Texas decision last week, but quieter immigration battles were playing out in a county jail a bit closer to home. Before dawn on the day after the ruling, Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus staff headed out to the Yuba County Jail, where […]
November 19, 2015
By Yaman Salahi, Staff Attorney National Security & Civil Rights *This article originially appeared on Medium on November 18, 2015 The Mediterranean has drowned thousands of Syrian refugees, but now they face another threat: a tidal wave of American politicians vowing to oppose the re-settlement of Syrian refugees in the United States after the terrorist […]
October 5, 2015
By Chris Punongbayan, Executive Director *This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post on October 2, 2015. Trayvon Martin. Eric Garner. Sandra Bland. Michael Brown. It feels like nearly every day I’m confronted with yet another video in the news with raw scenes of violence against African Americans. We are in the middle of a […]
October 5, 2015
Co-authored by Chris Punongbayan (Executive Director) and Stewart Kwoh (President and Executive Director, Advancing Justice – Los Angeles) *This article originially appeared in New America Media on September 25, 2015. At this pivotal moment in our nation’s ongoing struggle with racism, California can and should lead the nation in fair policing. Instead, our state shamefully leads the […]
May 26, 2015
Co-authored by Jenny Zhao and Anoop Prasad, Immigrant Rights Program Earlier this month, after more than six months in immigration detention, Benito Flores won his case and went home to his wife and children. The immigration judge granted him a green card as a longtime community member of good moral character whose U.S. citizen family […]
May 6, 2015
Co-authored by Anoop Prasad (Immigrant Rights) and Julia Harumi Mass (ACLU NorCal) *This article originally appeared on the ACLU Blog on April 8, 2015. ICE should think twice before exposing immigrants to valley fever Immigration detention centers are notorious for extreme isolation and inhumane conditions, especially detention centers run by private corporations. So we were more […]
March 24, 2015
Co-authored by Nasrina Bargzie (National Security & Civil Rights) and Julia Harumi Mass (ACLU) Today, a federal district court in San Francisco issued an important ruling for government transparency and accountability. Judge Richard Seeborg disallowed the FBI’s attempt to use a “law enforcement exemption” in the Freedom of Information Act to shield from public disclosure […]
March 20, 2015
Co-authored by Angela Chan (Criminal Justice Reform) and Jon Rodney (CIPC) *This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post on March 20, 2015. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a new director, Sarah Saldaña, but she made it apparent on Thursday that the agency is stuck making the same old mistakes. As she testified before […]
March 2, 2015
Co-authored by Angela Chan (Criminal Justice Reform), Anoop Prasad (Immigrant Rights), and Winnie Kao (Workers’ Rights) *This article originially appeared on the Huffington Post on March 2, 2015. This past Black History Month, millions of students were told the story of how America abolished slavery 150 years ago with ratification of the 13th Amendment. The story […]
