News

11.07.2022
Press Release

Advancing Justice | Chicago: Poll Watching for Nov 8 Midterm Elections

For Immediate Release 

Contacts: 

Kevin Hsia, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago 

224-289-5486, khsia@advancingjustice-chicago.org 

Kimberly Leung, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago 

415-234-0748, KLeung@advancingjustice-chicago.org 

CHICAGO, IL — November 7, 2022 – The Illinois Midterm Election is tomorrow, Tuesday, November 8. The ballot includes races for governor, congressional seats, state legislative offices, and a variety of local positions. Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago continues its long-running poll watching program in Chicago and Cook County. The goal of our nonpartisan program is to ensure that all eligible voters have fair and equitable access to the polls, with particular attention to historically disenfranchised communities like Asian Americans and immigrants.  

Though Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the country and in the state of Illinois, Asian Americans face a number of barriers when it comes to voting, including a lack of language access. Asian Americans are made up of linguistically diverse communities. Seventy-seven percent of Asian Americans in Illinois speak a language other than English at home, and of those, approximately 38% speak English less than “very well.”  

Our poll watching program focuses on monitoring precincts where there are high number of voters with limited English proficiency. In Chicago and suburban Cook County, there are certain precincts that are required to have translated ballots, signages and bilingual poll workers. Our staff and volunteers poll watchers visit these voting locations to ensure that they are in compliance with federal and local laws governing language access.  

Due to changes resulting from Chicago’s precinct consolidation, there are additional concerns this election as to whether voters with limited English proficiency (LEP) will have access to the information and assistance they need. In addition to our poll watching program, we will have volunteer interpreters at certain precincts available to help voters who want assistance. Under the federal Voting Rights Act, LEP voters have the right to bring an interpreter of their choice to assist them with voting, with the limited exception that the person they bring cannot be their employer or union representative.  

This Midterm Election, our staff and volunteers will, cover 96 precincts and three voter centers in Chicago, and 102 precincts in Suburban Cook County.   

In suburban Cook County, the Voting Opportunity and Translation Equity (VOTE) Ordinance, which was passed in October 2019, requires certain precincts to have translated materials in Korean, Tagalog, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Gujarati and Urdu.  In addition to monitoring the Asian language precincts, Advancing Justice | Chicago will also be poll watching at the Arabic language precincts in partnership with Arab American Family Services.  

When: Tuesday, November 8, 2022   

Where: Chicago and Suburban Cook County   

What: Advancing Justice | Chicago staff and volunteer poll watchers will be stationed at polling places across Chicago and Suburban Cook County to monitor for compliance with language access and other requirements.  In total, our staff and volunteers will cover 96 precincts and three voter centers in Chicago, and 102 precincts in Suburban Cook County.    During visits, poll watchers will check for language and disability access and ensure voter harassment and disenfranchisement do not occur.   

Additional info:   

If you have any questions about voting, you can call the Election Protection Hotline. Call 888-API-VOTE (888-274-8683) for assistance in Bengali, Cantonese, English, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, Urdu and Vietnamese. Call 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682) for assistance in Spanish. For assistance in English, call 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683).  

Downloadable Factsheet: How to Vote in Illinois for the Nov. 8 General Election 

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Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago builds power through collective advocacy and organizing to achieve racial equity. Learn more at www.advancingjustice-chicago.org. 

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11.04.2022
Press Release

Asian Americans Condemn Deceitful, Racist Mailers from Stephen Miller-Led Group

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CONTACT: Grace Pai (Executive Director) gpai@advancingjustice-chicago.org, Seong-Ah Cho (Organizing Director) scho@advancingjustice-chicago.org 

Asian Americans Condemn Deceitful, Racist Mailers from Stephen Miller-Led Group 

CHICAGO – As Asian Americans continue to be the fastest growing demographic in Illinois and across the country, a group led by former Trump advisor Stephen Miller is flooding the state with deceitful and racist mailers aimed at misleading and sowing fear in the Asian American community. 

The racist mailers were sent by the America First Legal Foundation, the conservative organization founded by former Trump advisor Stephen Miller. Miller has a long history of peddling racist hate and division. Miller was the architect behind the Trump administration’s family separation program, a brutally inhumane anti-immigrant policy which led to the widespread images of kids in cages that shocked the nation, and author of Trump’s widely condemned travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries.  

“Stephen Miller led the most xenophobic, anti-immigrant agenda imaginable under the Trump administration and has demonstrated time and time again that he does not care about Asian Americans,” said Grace Pai, Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago. “The fact that Miller directly contributed to stoking up violence and hatred against Asian Americans and other immigrants and is now attempting to displace that blame is clearly in bad faith. These mailers are blatantly racist fear-mongering in an attempt to mislead and scare Asian Americans and divide us from our fellow communities of color.” 

The mailers are part of a coordinated campaign by the America First Legal Foundation. Outside of Illinois, mailers have been received in Ohio, Arizona, Georgia, Virginia, California, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New York, and Texas over the past week. Since its formation in 2021, the right-wing group has a long history of using divisive rhetoric and misinformation. 

“Asian American communities have a clear and shared stake in racial equity issues like affirmative action, immigration reform, affordable housing, and access to healthcare alongside Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and all marginalized communities,” said Seong-Ah Cho, Organizing Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago. “We will continue to educate our communities and fight together for policies that genuinely represent the interests of our diverse communities. We will not be deterred by those who wish to silence and divide us.” 

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Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago builds power through collective advocacy and organizing to achieve racial equity. Learn more at advancingjustice-chicago.org. 

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10.28.2022
Press Release

Asian American Civil Rights Orgs: We Need Affirmative Action to Counter Systemic Racism in Education

October 28, 2022

For Immediate Release
CONTACT
Michelle Boykins(202) 296-2300, ext. 0144mboykins@advancingjustice-aajc.org
Vivin Qiang202-780-9327vqiang@advancingjustice-aajc.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ahead of oral arguments before the Supreme Court in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina on October 31, Asian Americans Advancing Justice is calling on the court to affirm the constitutional right to affirmative action, a long-held precedent that is still needed to counter systemic racism and white supremacy in our education systems and is supported by more than two-thirds of Asian Americans.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an affiliation of five independent Asian American civil rights organizations, issued the following statement:

“Let’s be clear about the motivations behind these cases: extremist strategist Edward Blum and his vast network of funders are pursuing a decades-long campaign to divide communities of color and strip away educational opportunities and voting rights from Black, Latino, Indigenous, and Asian communities – and deliberately attempting to use Asian American students and families as a racial wedge for their political gain.

“We know the truth. It is rampant throughout our history, whether it is the California law that permitted segregation of ‘children of Mongolian or Chinese descent’ until 1947 or all the ways systemic racism today has blocked many Southeast Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students from accessing high quality K-12 and college education.

“As we wrote in our amicus brief, abandoning affirmative action and race-conscious admissions will undo the progress that has been hard fought across generations, and impedes the changes we still need to make quality education a reality for all students, regardless of their wealth, their family connections, or their race and ethnicity. We urge the court to uphold the constitutional right to affirmative action that has made education better for countless students, including Asian American students, for more than 40 years.”

Civil rights organizations including Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Legal Defense Fund, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and The Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights are united in our support for race-conscious admissions policies that improve access to education for all students. In August, the Advancing Justice affiliation filed two amicus curiae briefs, including one with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Lawyers for Civil Rights, and pro bono counsel Arnold & Porter on behalf of a multiracial group of alumni students of color at Harvard who served as amici-plus and presented evidence at trial in support of holistic admissions policies that consider the entirety of a student’s experiences, talents, and potential.

The second amicus curiae brief, written with pro bono counsel Ballard Spahr, was joined by 37 Asian American and Pacific Islander civil rights groups, advocacy organizations, professionals, and student organizations in support of race-conscious admissions and the enduring need for these programs to counter systemic racism and white supremacy in our education systems.

On Monday morning, many of these signatories will join students and community members from across the country to rally for affirmative action and race-conscious admissions on the Supreme Court steps. To find reaction panels and other post-oral arguments events and analysis, follow #DefendDiversity and #AffirmOpportunity on Twitter.

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Asian Americans Advancing Justice is a national affiliation of five leading organizations advocating for the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and other underserved communities to promote a fair and equitable society for all. The affiliation’s members are: Advancing Justice – AAJC (Washington, DC), Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, AJSOCAL, Advancing Justice – Atlanta, and Advancing Justice – Chicago.

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10.19.2022
News

Personal Safety Alarms, Trainings Aim To Give Asian Residents Tools To Protect Themselves As Attacks Rise

Credit: ColinBoyle/Block Club Chicago. People walk through Chinatown Square on a summer day in Chinatown on July 15, 2021.

By Mack Liederman (Block Club Chicago)

CHICAGO — Advocacy groups are offering Asian Chicagoans personal safety alarms and defense training amid a continued surge in anti-Asian hate crimes.

The Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community is providing more than 400 handheld safety alarms to Asian Chicagoans, giving them out at events and at tables set up in the community, said advocacy manager Vivian Zhang.

Many of the people taking advantage of the offer are older and use public transit or walk, Zhang said. People can pull a pin on the alarm so it makes a loud sound in a bid to scare away an attacker or alert others the user needs help.

The initiative comes as anti-Asian hate crimes in Chicago have risen during the COVID-19 pandemic, from two in 2020 to nine in 2021 and eight in 2022, according to police data. Similar upticks have been seen throughout the country.

Credit: Personal safety alarms. Colin Boyle/Block Club ChicagoA video last month showed two people attacking and robbing an older Asian man as he rode the Red Line. The fatal shooting of Woom Sing Tse, 71, in Chinatown in December sparked calls for more cameras, lights and longer-term violence prevention efforts in the neighborhood.

About 7 percent of Chicagoans are Asian, according to the Sun-Times.

Chicago has a large population of Asian Americans — but they don’t account for as much of the overall population as some coastal cities. That means hate crimes can fly under the radar and may be underreported, said Andrea Chu, the Midwest organizing manager at Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

“This violence against our communities is not over, and I don’t think it’ll be over anytime soon,” Chu said. “When you look at Islamophobia after 9/11, that violence didn’t go away. There’s a real impact on public safety from the anti-Chinese rhetoric from politicians, in terms of COVID and economic competition, that continues to take a toll.”

Asian Americans Advancing Justice hosts bystander intervention trainings over Zoom to prepare people if they witness a hate crime, Chu said. Local community groups are also doing outreach to Asian-American residents to encourage them to report hate crimes and are partnering with police to serve as translators during home visits, said Grace Chan McKibben, executive director of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community.

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