NEW YORK – March 31, 2021 – AABANY’s Pro Bono and Community Services Committee (“PBCS”) and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (“CCBA”) will launch monthly virtual community presentations and clinic sessions beginning April 2021. This is a joint project to serve members of the Asian Pacific American community who have limited English proficiency by providing free “Know Your Rights” presentations about various common legal issues in housing law, elder law, family law, immigration law, and employment law. Each month will focus on one specific area of law that affects the community, along with a Know Your Rights session on anti-Asian hate and harassment at every virtual presentation. We hope to raise awareness of anti-Asian violence, to inform our audience how to report a hate incident, and to provide helpful resources to victims of hate crime.
On Sunday, April 28, AABANY co-sponsored the annual Asian Pacific American Women’s Conference at Pace University. Hosted by the Organization of Chinese Advocates and Families with Children from China, the Conference was a full day of fruitful panel discussions that revolved around the sociopolitical issues that affect the Asian Pacific American woman–from #MeToo to mental health. As part of the conference, AABANY hosted a pro bono clinic and the following members gave community presentations on their areas of practice:
Tsui H. Yee (Law Offices of Tsui H. Yee P.C.): Immigration Law
Karen Kithan Yau (Kakalec Law PLLC): Protection from Wage Theft and Employment Discrimination
Beatrice Leong (Parmet and Zhou LLC): Family Law
Samantha Sumilang (Lazarus, Karp & Kalamotousakis LLP): Landlord-Tenant Law
Beatrice Leong delivers a community presentation about Family Law
AABANY also had the opportunity to table at the resource fair and spread awareness about our monthly pro bono clinic. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and said hello!
Thank you to all of the APA Women’s Conference Pro Bono Clinic volunteers! 24 volunteers in total showed up and provided valuable pro bono assistance.
Lawyers:
Kelly Diep Kathy Yung Angela Wu Grace Pyun May Wong Dianna Lee Elyssa Kates Samantha Sumilang Beatrice Leong Cindy Mayumi Iijima Nelson Mar Gloria Tsui-Yip Tsui Yee
Interpreters:
Henry Man Justina Chen Haruka Mori Charles Tan Carteneil Cheung Alicia Chan
Special thanks to Pro Bono Committee Co-Chairs Karen Kithan Yau, Pauline Yeung-Ha, Judy Lee, Asako Aiba, Vice-Chairs Kwok Kei Ng and Jessie Zhixian Liu for their leadership!
If you are interested in volunteering at future Pro Bono Clinics, please contact Asako Aiba at [email protected]. AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM in the Community Room at 33 Bowery Street .
The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is proud to present the 2018 NAPABA President’s Award to Karen Korematsu (Founder & Executive Director, The Fred T. Korematsu Institute) and Dale Minami and Don Tamaki (Partners, Minami Tamaki LLP; members of the Korematsu Coram Nobis legal team) for their work on StopRepeatingHistory.Org, a campaign to educate the public about Japanese American incarceration during WWII and the present-day dangers of similar policies targeting individuals based on race, national origin, or religion. The NAPABA President’s Award is given to NAPABA members who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to NAPABA, the legal community, and the broader Asian Pacific American community.
Karen Korematsu, founder of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute and daughter of the late Fred T. Korematsu, is a leading voice in advocating for civil liberties for all communities, and in 2015, she became NAPABA’s first non-lawyer member. Dale Minami and Dom Tamaki have been involved in significant litigation involving the civil rights of Asian Pacific Americans and other underrepresented groups and served on the pro bono team that reopened the landmark Korematsu v. United States Supreme Court Case, overturning Fred Korematsu’s conviction.
“This year, it is my honor to present the NAPABA President’s Award to Karen Korematsu, Dale Minami, and Don Tamaki for their tireless commitment to the StopRepeatingHistory.Org campaign,” said NAPABA President Pankit J. Doshi. “I applaud their efforts to relate the experiences of Japanese American internment during World War II to the infringement on civil rights and civil liberties that many religious and ethnic minorities face today. Their voices have been critical to ensuring that we as a nation never repeat that dark chapter of our history, including as a result of the travel ban impacting Muslim and immigrant communities, which NAPABA vehemently opposed. While their work in civil rights for decades has already blazed a trail, their continued efforts to advocate for our community without rest is particularly inspirational in today’s world.”
The 2018 NAPABA President’s Award will be presented at the 2018 NAPABA Convention in Chicago, IL, on Nov. 10, 2018. NAPABA congratulates Karen Korematsu, Dale Minami, and Don Tamaki as the 2018 NAPABA President’s Award recipients.
WASHINGTON — The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) filed amicus briefs in both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to support the preliminary injunction of President Trump’s September 24, 2017, revised executive order barring refugees and individuals from six Muslim-majority countries and North Korea, along with government officials from Venezuela, from entering the United States.
The Trump Administration’s appeals in these cases, State of Hawaii v. Trump and International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump, arise from the legal challenges to the third revised executive order, which was announced in September 2017 and set to take effect October 18, 2017. On October 17, Judge Derrick K. Watson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii granted the temporary restraining order. NAPABA filed an amicus brief in this case on November 22. The U.S. district court in Maryland also enjoined the visa ban on October 17, 2017, and the Administration’s appeal in that case is pending in the Fourth Circuit, where NAPABA filed an amicus brief on November 17, 2017.
“This third order continues the discriminatory and unlawful exclusion promoted by its predecessors,” said NAPABA President Pankit J. Doshi. “As a bar association committed to promoting diversity and inclusion, we are proud to continue to speak out in these cases. As an Asian Pacific American community, we have experienced the harms of exclusionary laws and we will continue to oppose this anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant order.”
NAPABA’s amicus briefs describe decades of statutory exclusion of citizens of Asian and Pacific Island countries under early U.S. immigration law, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 — the first federal law to ban a group of people on the basis of their race. The Civil Rights Era marked a dramatic turning point that saw Congress dismantle nationality-based discrimination with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. The brief explains that presidential discretion in the area of immigration and refugee admission, while broad, is limited by statute. NAPABA argues that President Trump’s revised order, with its anti-Muslim underpinnings, violates the unambiguous prohibition on discrimination established by Congress.
NAPABA opposed earlier iterations of the executive order, including submitting amicus briefs at the District, Circuit, and Supreme Court level.
NAPABA recognizes lead pro bono counsel, James W. Kim, a NAPABA member and partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP, in Washington, D.C., Mr. Kim’s team (including Andrew Genz, Joshua Rogaczewski, Philip Levine, Matthew Girgenti, and Llewelyn Engel), NAPABA Amicus Committee co-chairs, Professor Radha Pathak of Whittier Law School and Albert Giang, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in Los Angeles, and NAPABA Civil Rights Committee co-chair Meredith Higashi for their leadership drafting the brief, which also involved the efforts of NAPABA staff.
The Ninth Circuit will hear the case on December 6, 2017, in Seattle, WA. The Fourth Circuit will hear the case on December 8, 2017 in Richmond, VA.
For more information, the media may contact Brett Schuster, NAPABA communications manager, at 202-775-9555 or [email protected].
The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is the national association of Asian Pacific American (APA) attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students. NAPABA represents the interests of over 50,000 attorneys and over 75 national, state, and local bar associations. Its members include solo practitioners, large firm lawyers, corporate counsel, legal services and non-profit attorneys, and lawyers serving at all levels of government. NAPABA engages in legislative and policy advocacy, promotes APA political leadership and political appointments, and builds coalitions within the legal profession and the community at large. NAPABA also serves as a resource for government agencies, members of Congress, and public service organizations about APAs in the legal profession, civil rights, and diversity in the courts.
NAPABA continues to be a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting Asian Pacific American communities. Through its national network of committees and affiliates, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, advocates for equal opportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment, and promotes the professional development of people of color in the legal profession.
To learn more about NAPABA, visit www.napaba.org, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter (@NAPABA).
The New York Immigration Coalition in collaboration with The New York State Department of State Office for New Americans Presents Two-Day Immigration Law Training Schedule Free for all ONA groups and non-attorney staff of non-profit agencies.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014 & Wednesday, September 3, 2014
All trainings will be held at the Catholic Charities Immigration & Refugee Assistance Program 20 Herkimer Street, Buffalo, NY 14213
Tuesday September 2, 2014
8:30AM – 10:20 AM: How to Obtain BIA Recognition for Your Agency and Become an Accredited Representative (No CLE) Instructor: TBA In this training, we will cover in detail the requirements for obtaining Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Recognition for your non-profit agency so that it may provide immigration legal services through Accredited Representatives. We also will cover the requirements for obtaining accreditation for individual non-attorney employees of recognized agencies.
10:30AM – 12:30PM Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – Initial and Renewal Applications (2 CLE*) Instructor: Karen Andolina Scott, Esq., Managing Attorney of Journey’s End Refugee Services This training will cover the basic eligibility requirements for initial and renewal applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) as well as walk through filling out the Form I-821D, Form I-765, and Form I-765WS. The training will also discuss the potential documentation to include with a request packet.
01:30PM – 05:30PM Hot Topics in Immigration Law (4 CLE*) Instructor: Jamie Maddalena of Fiegel Maddalena Law. This training provides an overview of basic concepts in immigration law, including immigrant and non-immigrant visa categories, adjustment of status, consular processing, and citizenship. It will also address current trends in interpretation and processing of the most common types of applications. No prior knowledge of immigration law is required.
Wednesday September 3, 2014
08:30AM – 10:20AM: Naturalization and Citizenship (2 CLE*) Instructor: TBA This training will cover basic topics relating to naturalization and citizenship. Topics will include acquisition and derivation of citizenship, eligibility for naturalization, impediments and bars to naturalization, practice and procedure authorization and practical issues when dealing with foster-care caseworkers, Administration for Children’s Services, and family-court law guardians.
10:30AM – 12:30PM Immigration Consequences of Criminal Activity (2 CLE*) Instructor: Sophie Feal, Supervising Immigration Attorney of Erie County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, Inc. This training will review the various immigration law issues faced by non-citizens who have been convicted or accused of criminal conduct. The training will cover the criminal bars and waivers for noncitizens seeking lawful permanent residence or other lawful status, criminal grounds of removal and waivers applicable to lawful permanent residents, and good moral character bars and deportation risks for lawful permanent residents with criminal records who are pursuing naturalization. It will also touch on detention issues and intake strategies.
03:30PM – 05:30PM USCIS Field Office Visit (No CLE)
