Attorneys Needed to Help Respond to Immigration Raids
Consistent with our Grand Alliance work, Equal Justice Society has partnered with the San Francisco Immigrant Legal & Education Network (SFILEN). In the course of this collaboration, the need for more Rapid Response attorneys has arisen.
Two attorneys, Francisco Ugarte, staff attorney at SFILEN, and Sin Yen Ling, staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus, form part of the San Francisco Rapid Response Network. They have offered to train interested attorneys to become part of the Network and help with providing initial representation and consultation to raid detainees in the event of an ICE Raid.
San Francisco’s Rapid Response Network responds to immigration raids where three or more people are detained at the same time. Once there has been a raid, detainees can be moved to another jurisdiction which cuts off communication with loved ones and undermines the ability for advocates to assist detainees.
Asian America Must Battle Injustice with President Obama
I originally wrote this for ningin.com, a site covering Asian media and pop culture.
A Black man born in Hawai’i with an Asian sister was sworn into office Tuesday as our President. He took the oath of office on the same bible used by Abraham Lincoln for the exact same oath 148 years ago, realizing the dreams of countless African Americans and others who previously never imagined this moment.
President Barack Obama now leads our country into uncertain and troubled times. But he begins work on our nation’s ills with unprecedented numbers of Asian Americans in substantive roles in this Administration.
Japanese American Peter Rouse is White House Senior Adviser. Chinese American Chris Lu is Cabinet Secretary. Former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki is Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Nobel prize winner Steven Chu is Secretary of Energy.
We now have a First Family that includes Asian Americans. The President’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, is half Indonesian. Her husband Konrad is Chinese American. Their daughter Suhaila is hapa.
This roster of Asian names is significant because the halls and backrooms of power in our nation’s capitol have for too long been dominated by monochromatic men. It does not mean we have arrived. It means we’ve only just begun.
