Beginning with this newsletter, you will be hearing from us every quarter about all the different ways we are out there in the community every day, defending the legal and civil rights of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

At the end of June we announced a closer affiliation with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Los Angeles, the Asian American Justice Center in DC and the Asian American Institute in Chicago. As the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, we will have the ability to more effectively mobilize our communities and to impact social justice not only in our backyards, but across the country.  As we move forward with this process, we are looking forward to your support and input. We have heard from many of you already, but please call and email with additional questions or thoughts.

September is my favorite time of year; as the new school year begins, there is a renewed sense of potential and possibility. This September has been action-packed for the Asian Law Caucus. Our office has been packed with clients seeking free legal services in housing and immigration. Earlier this month, the advocacy efforts of ALC and our coalition partners in San Francisco Immigrant Rights Defense Committee led to a concession by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the individual counties can opt out of "S-Comm," a program which had led to serious concerns of racial profiling by local law enforcement in the communities where it has been implemented.  We have facilitated the establishment of the Coalition for a Safe San Francisco and worked closely with the San Francisco Human Rights Commission to organize a hearing where over 100 community members and policymakers testified about the impacts of racial and religious profiling on Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern and South Asian communities and demanded that San Francisco not be complicit in such profiling.  Our youth group, ASPIRE, made hundreds of calls in support of passage of the DREAM Act last week. Although it failed this time, we are continuing to build the infrastructure we need in Asian immigrant communities to support just and humane immigration reform.

And finally, on November 6th we will be hosting a trivia contest! We have a fabulous group of alumni who have organized the Team Trivia Competition for 14 years now. It is a lot of fun, and it is only your support through events such as these that make all of our work possible. The event will begin at 7:00 pm and will be held at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. For more information, please contact Audee Kochiyama-Holman at 415-896-1701, ext 131 or audeekh@asianlawcaucus.org. Please join us. 

Wishing you a happy and productive fall,

Mina Titi Liu
Executive Director 

When Sophea Keo and his family came to ALC for legal assistance, they were on the brink of deportation and facing an uncertain future. Born and raised in Cambodia, Sophea Keo moved to the United States in 2002 with his mother and siblings, soon after his mother remarried a U.S. citizen. After a short time in Modesto, Keo moved to San Francisco in search of better schools and access to ESL classes.
 
In San Francisco, Keo and his family were faced with having to continuously reapply for their conditional green card while his stepfather stayed behind in Modesto to work. This living situation aroused the suspicions of INS, and eventually led to the family's green cards being denied and the family scheduled for deportation.
 
"Everything was breaking down," recalls Keo. "My mom had liver problems and arthritis; [my sister] developed kidney stones, and without a lawyer, we were definitely getting deported. We couldn't stay here because we couldn't afford a lawyer. My mom cried every night and was completely devastated."
 
Keo's high school teacher referred his family to ALC and with the help of Sin Yen Ling, an immigrant rights attorney at the Caucus, Keo's family soon won their green cards. Keo went on to become a founding member of ASPIRE (Asian Students Promoting Immigrant Rights through Education), an immigrant youth-led ALC program working towards a more inclusive, equal society and protecting immigrant rights.
 
Today, Keo continues to mentor incoming students in ASPIRE. Since his family first came to us, his mother's health has improved, his family is employed and Keo's brother was accepted into UC Santa Cruz. "We were saved by my teacher's call to Sin Yen," says Keo. "ALC was the only organization to provide free services. Today I work for Wells Fargo and an IT firm and want to earn a bachelor's degree in engineering. I'm so appreciative of ALC."

To learn more about ASPIRE, check out ALC's "A Dream A Part," a short film about five Asian undocumented students and their lives in the United States.

What is redistricting?
Every ten years, after the census, new district maps are drawn for Congress, the California legislature, county boards of supervisors, and city councils. When these maps are redrawn, the boundaries are changed so that each district contains the same number of people. This process is called redistricting and the next time this will happen is in 2011.
 
Why does redistricting matter?
In past redistrictings, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities have been fragmented by district boundaries. For example, in the 2001 redistricting, the San Jose neighborhood of Berryessa was split among four State Assembly districts, even though over half of Berryessa's population is AAPI. When AAPI communities are divided, their ability to influence their elected representatives to address their needs is diminished.
 
Who draws the lines?
A new redistricting commission will draw the maps for the State Senate and Assembly. The commission will decide whether AAPI communities are fragmented unfairly or kept whole in 2011. In order to help the commission make its decisions, the commission will hold public meetings across California and listen to testimony from residents about their communities and neighborhoods.
 
How can you get involved?
AAPI community members must provide input to ensure that the redistricting commission knows where the AAPI communities are located when it draws the maps. ALC is working with the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting (CAPAFR) to bring community members together. CAPAFR is conducting a series of AAPI community meetings and plans to submit proposed maps to the redistricting commission based on the community input. All are welcome to attend and the next meeting is scheduled for February 2011.
 
For more information about redistricting or the series of meetings, please contact the Asian Law Caucus at CAPAFR2011@gmail.com or visit www.capafr.org.

Joren Lyons first began volunteering at the Asian Law Caucus as a first-year law student in 1996 with our twice-monthly immigration clinics. He was a summer law clerk assisting former staff attorney Frank Tse in 1998, volunteered regularly as a consulting attorney for the immigration clinics in 2002 and 2003 and became a staff attorney in October 2003.
 
After seven years with ALC, Joren is leaving this fall to become a federal Immigration Judge for the San Francisco unit of the Executive Office for Immigration Review. Joren is familiar with the Immigration Court, having appeared before the Court to win relief from deportation for over 150 clients during his time at ALC. He has also shepherded several hundred permanent residents through the process of becoming naturalized American citizens, including many community members with disabilities who required a special waiver to use an interpreter during their naturalization interviews.
 
During his years at ALC, Joren has given countless community education presentations and continuing legal education seminars on immigration and citizenship law. For the last several years, he has been the principal trainer of volunteers for the annual Citizenship Days hosted by both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. On most Saturdays "for as long as I (or my wife) can remember," he jokes, he has been volunteering as the supervising attorney for the free Asian Community Immigration Clinic, where low-income community members can get help in completing immigration and citizenship applications. Joren is looking forward to new challenges as an Immigration Judge, and says, "I feel like the experience I gained from my seven years at ALC has prepared me to handle (almost) anything!"

It is with great sadness that we share the news of Joannie Chang's passing on Saturday, July 31st, 2010. Joannie was an attorney and Director of Employment and Labor Projects at ALC from 2002 to 2006, and a dear friend to many in the community. Here at ALC we witness every day what she achieved for workers in our community and continue to be inspired by her courage, commitment and leadership. We will all miss Joannie's warm spirit, boundless energy and incredible mind.
 
ALC extends its deepest sympathies to her partner Luna Yasui and their daughters, Ayumi and Yuuki. If you would like to make a donation in her memory, please visit the website created to provide financial support to her daughters.

The mission of the Asian Law Caucus is to promote, advance, and represent the legal and civil rights of the Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Recognizing that social, economic, political and racial inequalities continue to exist in the United States, the Asian Law Caucus is committed to the pursuit of equality and justice for all sectors of our society with a specific focus directed toward addressing the needs of low-income, immigrant, and underserved Asian and Pacific Islanders. Visit: asianlawcaucus.org