Asian Pacific American Legal Center
Encyclopedia
The Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, is a non-profit legal aid
and civil rights
organization dedicated to advocating for civil rights, providing legal services and education and building coalitions on behalf of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islander
(AAPI) community.
APALC is the largest legal organization focused on the AAPI community in the United States
, and uniquely merges the work of a traditional legal services provider and a civil rights organization. APALC is located in Los Angeles, California
, and also has offices in Orange County
and Sacramento
.
APALC serves its clients in numerous languages including Korean
, Japanese
, Mandarin
, Cantonese
, Khmer
, Indonesian
, Tagalog
, and Vietnamese
, along with English
and Spanish
. APALC is one of the only 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. APALC also advocates through the courts and legislature on many issues, including: voting rights, workers' rights, immigration, domestic violence, race discrimiation, and language rights. APALC 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
alliance building.
In 1995, APALC 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
. Once freed from the apartment, the workers were taken by the U.S. government and thrown into federal detention. Eventually, the work of APALC, along with a coalition of advocacy groups in Los Angeles, led to the release of all the workers. APALC, along with other advocates, then led the successful workers’ rights lawsuit against the manufacturers and retailers responsible for the sweatshop conditions.
Beginning in the early 1990s, APALC 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
, APALC’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
.
In 2008, APALC 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 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, APALC 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.
, APALC 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, APALC 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, APALC and its volunteers enforce the Voting Rights Act
, which protects limited English proficient voters at the polls and allows many of them to access translated voting materials or to use interpreters.
Legal aid
Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people otherwise 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 to counsel and the right to a fair trial.A number of...
and civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
organization dedicated to advocating for civil rights, providing legal services and education and building coalitions on behalf of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander , is a geographic term to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands consist of:Polynesia:...
(AAPI) community.
APALC is the largest legal organization focused on the AAPI community in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and uniquely merges the work of a traditional legal services provider and a civil rights organization. APALC is located in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, and also has offices in Orange County
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
and Sacramento
Sacramento
Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...
.
Overview
Founded in 1983, APALC supports members of the AAPI community through direct legal services, impact litigation, policy analysis & advocacy, and leadership development. Currently, APALC serves more than 15,000 individuals and organizations each year. APALC is a member of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, whose members also include Asian American Institute (Chicago), Asian American Justice Center (National Affiliate) and Asian Law Caucus (San Francisco).APALC serves its clients in numerous languages including Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Mandarin
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
, Cantonese
Cantonese
Cantonese is a dialect spoken primarily in south China.Cantonese may also refer to:* Yue Chinese, the Chinese language that includes Cantonese* Cantonese cuisine, the cuisine of Guangdong province...
, Khmer
Khmer language
Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...
, Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
, Tagalog
Tagalog language
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
, and Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
, along with English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. APALC is one of the only 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. APALC also advocates through the courts and legislature on many issues, including: voting rights, workers' rights, immigration, domestic violence, race discrimiation, and language rights. APALC 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
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
alliance building.
In 1995, APALC served as the lead counsel in a groundbreaking federal civil rights lawsuit, Bureerong v. Uvawas, on behalf of 80 Thai
Thai people
The Thai people, or Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of...
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, California
El Monte is a residential, industrial, and commercial city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city's slogan is "Welcome to Friendly El Monte," and historically is known as "The End of the Santa Fe Trail." As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 113,475,...
. Once freed from the apartment, the workers were taken by the U.S. government and thrown into federal detention. Eventually, the work of APALC, along with a coalition of advocacy groups in Los Angeles, led to the release of all the workers. APALC, along with other advocates, then led the successful workers’ rights lawsuit against the manufacturers and retailers responsible for the sweatshop conditions.
Demographics
APALC invests significant resources in collecting, analyzing and disseminating ethnic and language-specific demographic data on Asian Americans.Beginning in the early 1990s, APALC 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
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
, APALC’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
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
.
In 2008, APALC 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
California gubernatorial election, 2006
The 2006 California gubernatorial election occurred on November 7, 2006. The primary elections took place on June 6, 2006. The incumbent Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, won re election for his first full term. His main opponent was California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, the...
, including Asian American voter registration and turnout, support for candidates and ballot measures, views on immigration reform and use of bilingual 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
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
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, APALC 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
APALC has worked with other immigrant rights organizations to demand fair and humane immigration legislation. To ensure an AAPI voice in the immigration debate, APALC 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, APALC 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 electionsUnited States elections, 2008
The 2008 United States general elections were held on November 4. The result was a significant victory for the Democratic Party on the national level, as they increased majorities in both houses of Congress and won the Presidency. Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican John McCain in the...
, APALC 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, APALC 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, APALC and its volunteers enforce the Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
, which protects limited English proficient voters at the polls and allows many of them to access translated voting materials or to use interpreters.