Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles
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Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL) formerly known as Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles (Advancing Justice LA), is a
non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
legal aid Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right ...
and
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
organization dedicated to advocacy, providing
legal services A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as wel ...
and education and building coalitions on behalf of the
Asian Americans Asian Americans are Americans with Asian diaspora, ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are Immigration to the United States, immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). A ...
,
Native Hawaiian Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; , , , and ) are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, Indigenous Polynesians, Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi was set ...
, and
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
(NHPI) communities. AJSOCAL was founded in 1983 as the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC). AJSOCAL is a legal and civil rights organization for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (NHPI). AJSOCAL is located in
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, and also has satellite offices in Orange County and
Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
.


Overview

Founded in 1983 as the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) following the killing of Vincent Chin, AJSOCAL serves more than 15,000 individuals and organizations every year. Through direct services, impact litigation, policy advocacy, leadership development, and capacity building, AJSOCAL focuses on the most vulnerable members of Asian American and NHPI communities while also building a voice for civil rights and social justice. Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California is part of , a national affiliation of four civil rights nonprofit organizations whose members also include Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Chicago, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC (National Affiliate) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice - ALC (San Francisco). AJSOCAL serves its clients in numerous languages including
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
,
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
,
Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
,
Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
, Khmer, Indonesian, Tagalog, and
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
, along with English and
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
. AJSOCAL is a legal organizations in Los Angeles County that maintains this breadth of language capacity, and thus is an important resource to limited English proficient speakers who are in need of legal assistance. AJSOCAL also advocates through the courts and legislature on many issues, including: voting rights, workers' rights, immigration, domestic violence, race discrimination, and language rights. AJSOCAL is also noted for its interethnic relations and multiracial coalition building through youth, parent and community-focused leadership development programs, as well as its work in hate crimes prevention, race relations, and
LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...
alliance building. In 1995, AJSOCAL served as the lead counsel in a groundbreaking federal civil rights lawsuit, '' Bureerong v. Uvawas'', on behalf of 80 Thai garment workers who had been trafficked into the United States, held illegally, and forced to work behind barbed wire and under armed guard in an apartment complex in
El Monte, California El Monte is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city lies in the San Gabriel Valley, east of the city of Los Angeles. El Monte's slogan is "Welcome to Friendly El Monte" and is historically known as "The End of the San ...
. Once freed from the apartment, the workers were taken by the U.S. government and thrown into federal detention. Eventually, the work of AJSOCAL, along with a coalition of advocacy groups in Los Angeles, led to the release of all the workers. AJSOCAL, along with other advocates, then led the successful workers' rights lawsuit against the manufacturers and retailers responsible for the sweatshop conditions.


Programs


Demographics

AJSOCAL invests significant resources in collecting, analyzing and disseminating ethnic and language-specific
demographic Demography () is the statistics, statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analy ...
data on Asian Americans. Beginning in the early 1990s, AJSOCAL has surveyed Asian American and other voters during major elections to capture data on APA voters that is missing from mainstream exit polling. For the November 2008 presidential election, AJSOCAL's exit poll surveyed over 4,000 voters in Los Angeles and Orange Counties on Election Day in English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean, and
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
. In 2008, AJSOCAL released a number of demographic reports. ''Asian Americans at the Ballot Box: The 2006 General Election in Orange County'' offered a comprehensive look at Asian American participation in California's 2006 gubernatorial election, including Asian American voter registration and turnout, support for candidates and ballot measures, views on immigration reform and use of
bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...
voter assistance. ''LA Speaks: Language Diversity and English Proficiency by Los Angeles County Service Planning Area'' highlighted the demographics of the limited English proficient communities in Los Angeles County by Service Planning Area (SPA). The report found that five of the eight SPAs countywide are majority non-English speaking, and that Latino and Asian American communities faced the greatest challenges, with 48% and 43%, respectively, experiencing some difficulty communicating in English. In partnership with the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, AJSOCAL released a joint publication, ''Disaster Preparedness in Urban Immigrant Communities: Lessons Learned from Recent Catastrophic Events and Their Relevance to Latino and Asian Communities in Southern California'', which found that immigrant and limited English proficient communities are not fully incorporated in disaster preparedness educational efforts and emergency response plans, and provides recommendations to personnel and government officials in better prepare immigrant communities in major disasters.


Immigration reform

AJSOCAL has worked with other immigrant rights organizations to demand fair and humane immigration legislation. To ensure an AAPI voice in the immigration debate, AJSOCAL has collected individual stories to demonstrate to the media and the larger public the significant impact that proposed policies would have on AAPI communities. In 2008, Advancing Justice - LA produced a report about the family immigration backlog entitled ''A Devastating Wait: Family Unity and the Immigration Backlogs'' highlighting family backlogs—which for some family categories are as long as 23 years—and the impact on Asian American communities and families.


Voting rights

During the
2008 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2008. * Electoral calendar 2008 * 2008 United Nations Security Council election Africa * 2008 Angolan legislative election * 2008 Anjouan presidential election * 2008 Republic of the Congo Senate elec ...
, AJSOCAL worked with Asian American community-based organizations to conduct non-partisan voter mobilization efforts, helping AAPI voters overcome common voting barriers. The mobilization efforts included bilingual phone banks, voter hotlines, and materials translated into Asian languages. The get-out-the-vote effort for both the June primary and November Presidential elections proved to be highly successful, reaching 12,000 voters in June and 15,000 voters in November. The outreach effort increased Asian American voter turnout by 17%, surpassing previous similar outreach efforts. In 2008, AJSOCAL also conducted poll monitoring during the February primary and November elections. With the assistance of a hundred volunteers, monitored over 160 poll sites in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Through their poll monitoring efforts, Advancing Justice - LA and its volunteers enforce the
Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movem ...
, which protects limited English proficient voters at the polls and allows many of them to access translated voting materials or to use interpreters.


Affirmative action

In '' Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin'', AJSOCAL submitted a brief supporting the University of Texas in preserving the use of
affirmative action Affirmative action (also sometimes called reservations, alternative access, positive discrimination or positive action in various countries' laws and policies) refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking ...
in admissions, saying Asian students "benefited from exposure to a diverse student body." An opposing brief by the Asian American Legal Foundation supported Fisher, the plaintiff, stated that an effect of affirmative action in admissions by University of Texas was discrimination against Asian students.


Layoffs and Union Disputes

In the fall of 2019, the organization, then known as Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles (AAAJ-LA), laid off approximately 20% of its staff amidst ongoing contract negotiations with its newly unionized workforce. This action, which included the termination of several union leaders and negotiations committee members, sparked significant controversy and accusations of anti-union tactics. The layoffs were attributed to a reported $2 million budget shortfall, but critics argued they were strategically timed to weaken the union's bargaining position. The layoffs also drew concerns about their impact on the organization's ability to serve the community, particularly as they affected multilingual hotline workers who provided critical services to non-English speakers. The incident led to public protests and condemnation from labor organizations. Additionally, three top leaders at AAAJ-LA resigned in protest of the layoffs, citing concerns about the organization's commitment to its mission and staff; the resignations further underscored the tensions and turmoil within the organization following the layoffs. In response to the layoffs, the Union filed a complaint with the
National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...
(NLRB), alleging that AAAJ-LA violated labor laws by laying off employees without providing the Union with notice and an opportunity to bargain. The NLRB's Office of the General Counsel investigated the complaint and issued an Advice Memorandum on November 3, 2020, concluding that AAAJ-LA had indeed violated labor laws in certain respects. The memorandum found that AAAJ-LA had a duty to bargain over the decision to lay off employees in several departments and that it failed to provide the Union with adequate notice and an opportunity to bargain over the effects of the layoffs.


References


External links

* * {{Authority control Legal aid in the United States Civil rights organizations in the United States