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YEARS 25OF ADVOCATING FOR CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS ANNUAL REPORT 2015–2016 OUR MISSION IS TO ADVANCE CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ASIAN AMERICANS AND TO BUILD AND PROMOTE A FAIR AND EQUITABLE SOCIETY FOR ALL A MESSAGE FROM OUR LEADERS For the last 25 years, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC has been at the forefront of the Asian American and Pacific Islander civil rights movement. We have worked on issues related to immigration, anti-Asian violence prevention, race relations, census, voting rights, affirmative action, media diversity, language access and citizenship. Some of our issues–including access to broadband services– did not even exist when we opened our doors. Over the years, our expertise has been recognized in the media, by lawmakers at the very highest tiers of government and by the public. Our legal and policy advocacy has resulted in real positive changes for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. The last two years have been no different. Advancing Justice | AAJC played a key role that resulted in the unification of Filipino World War II veterans with their adult children in the United States. These efforts have allowed these veterans’ family members to wait for their visas in the United States. Advancing Justice | AAJC has been a known and reputable voice in amicus briefs before the United States Supreme Court and other appellate courts. These briefs have touched on a wide variety of topics, including affirmative action, voting rights, access to the Internet, English proficiency, and immigration. Demonstrating the trust given to us, over 245 different organizations have joined our briefs in the last two years. We continue to have a vibrant and dynamic community partners network. This network provides training and technical assistance to grass roots Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations in 32 states and the District of Columbia. It allows local voices to be lifted nationally. It also provides Advancing Justice | AAJC with first-hand information about the issues facing our diverse community. As an affiliation, Asian Americans Advancing Justice–with our partners in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco–is getting stronger and more unified. Across all of our platforms, we are coordinating our work more than ever. Under one common name, our collective impact has and will increase significantly. Notwithstanding the successes of Advancing Justice | AAJC, we know that the community’s needs are increasing–not diminishing. The 2016 election and the new Administration clearly present challenges to our community. Our organization needs to continue to grow, and be strategic about how we can use our experience and expertise to effect positive change. We must demonstrate leadership, focus and commitment at this critical time. Our work could not be done without the generosity of friends and donors. We extend our deepest gratitude to all of you who have supported our work and look forward to your continuing support as we seek to advance the civil and human rights of Asian Americans, and to build and promote a fair and equitable society for all. Thank you. John C. Yang Parkin Lee President and Executive Director Chair, Board of Directors FOUNDING YEAR VOTING RIGHTS ACT FIRST PROGRAM AREAS Advancing Justice | AAJC is founded Advancing Justice | AAJC First program areas include anti-Asian as the National Asian Pacific American successfully advocates for expansion violence, voting rights and immigrant rights. Legal Consortium. and reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. 2015–2016 // 1 STRENGTHENING ROOTS IMMIGRATION AND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS PROMOTING FAIR AND JUST IMMIGRATION POLICIES NEW AMERICANS CAMPAIGN (NAC) Advancing Justice | AAJC is one of the nation’s leading authorities In 2015, Advancing Justice | AAJC became the on immigration policy as it affects the Asian American community. We leverage our position as a leader in the Asian American and site leader for the New Americans Campaign in broader social justice community in order to promote fair and the Washington metropolitan area. In this role, just immigration policies that protect family unity, provide access we have been working to bring together local to immigration status and a pathway to citizenship, and prevent immigration service providers to pave a better discrimination in enforcement. road for citizenship. Advancing Justice | AAJC OUR ADVOCACY and the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center (APALRC) have partnered with AAPI- Throughout the 114th Congress, we educated Congress and the public about the impacts of proposed anti-immigrant and serving community based organizations to hold anti-refugee policies on AAPI communities and promoted numerous naturalization workshops to provide forward-looking legislation such as the Reuniting Families legal assistance to individuals applying to become Act which was introduced in 2016 by Representative Michael U.S. citizens throughout the year. Honda. With gridlock in Congress, we turned to administrative advocacy during the prior administration to fix our broken immigration system. REUNIFICATION FOR FILIPINO WORLD WAR II VETERANS The Filipino World War II Veterans Parole Program is illustrative of the meaningful victories we can achieve to reunite families - in this case, uniting Filipino World War II veterans with their adult children who can now wait for their visas in the U.S. instead of waiting for many years overseas. Advancing Justice | AAJC played a key role in the advocacy for the creation of the program throughout 2015 and worked closely with USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) and the White House in its implementation and outreach in 2016. USCIS began accepting applications for the program in early June 2016. DEFERRED ACTION FOR LEFT: Citizenship Day 2016. On September 17, Advancing CHILDHOOD ARRIVALS (DACA) Justice | AAJC with the American Immigration Lawyers Association and our DC area NAC partners, organized nine Advancing Justice | AAJC continued its nationwide outreach workshops in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, through which we and education to assist Asian Americans in accessing legal helped over 200 individuals apply for naturalization. RIGHT: Washington Post reporter David Nakamura tells the assistance and applying for relief under DACA. Our continued story of World War II veteran Art Caleda, a Philippines native partnership with the AAPI DACA Collaborative allowed us who served our country, received citizenship under a 1990 to learn more about best practices and lessons learned from immigration law, and continues to wait—now more than 20 DACA-related outreach, which we were able to convey to years—to reunite with his children. policymakers in Washington, D.C. FIRST AMICUS BRIEF AUDIT OF VIOLENCE AGAINST ASIAN AMERICANS Advancing Justice | AAJC files its first amicus brief with the Advancing Justice | AAJC publishes the first Audit of Violence Supreme Court in the case Wisconsin v. Mitchell. In upholding that Against Asian Pacific Americans and helps to successfully pass state’s hate-crime statute, the Supreme Court cites AAJC’s brief. the Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act. 2 \\ ANNUAL REPORT STRENGTHENING ROOTS CENSUS ENSURING AN ACCURATE REFLECTION stakeholders attended—including community leaders, social OF ASIAN AMERICANS IN THE CENSUS service providers, business leaders, academics, funders, as well as legislators and administrative officials from local, state and Advancing Justice | AAJC works to address barriers that have federal government. historically resulted in the undercounting and underreporting of AAPIs in federal data collection and analysis efforts. An accurate count of the AAPI community in the census is a must for government services to be provided to our people and for We have received enthusiastic and positive decision makers to understand the community’s importance. feedback on the report from many leaders who Our work has led to increasing census research on improving outreach to Asian Americans, particularly those who are have expressed their gratitude for a tool that they limited English proficient—the people who stand to lose the have used to advance their advocacy agendas most if they are not accurately represented. and to leverage greater resources for community Advancing Justice | AAJC serves in leadership roles as needs. Further, we are increasing visibility and policy expert through our appointment to the Census Bureau’s greater understanding of Asian American, Native National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities Populations (NAC), as chair of the Census Bureau’s Language Working Group, as well as in our role as co-chair of the through ethnic and national press coverage. Leadership Conference Census Task Force. We continue to provide education and technical assistance on census issues to the general public and our communities by highlighting the importance of the census. We are developing our Census 2020 Outreach and Education Campaign for the AAPI community, applying our experience from the Census 2010 Campaign to best reach our hard-to-count AAPI communities. In November 2016, as chair of the Language Working Group for the NAC, Advancing Justice | AAJC led the development of a report focused on the Census Bureau language program for the 2020 Census. This led to a series of recommendations that included suggested criteria for which languages to cover, best practices for translations, and the types of materials to be translated. INCREASING THE VISIBILITY OF ASIAN