Asian American voters strongly favored Clinton over Trump

In AALDEF's exit poll of 14,400 Asian American voters, Clinton favored over Trump by wide margin.



In the ongoing assessment of the whos and whats and whys and hows of Election Day, it looks like Asian American voters strongly favored Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by a wide margin.

Preliminary exit poll findings released by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) from 14,400 Asian American voters reveal that Asian American voters in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia and Nevada strongly favored Clinton over Trump.

"The extreme anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and racist rhetoric in this election was deeply disturbing to Asian American voters, who wanted to support candidates who shared their values and hope for America," said Margaret Fung, Executive Director of AALDEF.

AALDEF collected surveys from Asian American voters at 91 polling places in 14 states with large or fast-growing Asian American populations. Based on Asian American voters polled on Election Day, 79% backed Hillary Clinton, 17% were for Donald Trump, and 3% voted for other candidates.

Here's the breakdown by state:

Help defend Asian American voting rights on Election Day

Volunteers needed for 2016 Asian American exit poll and poll monitoring.


Do you want to help defend Asian American voting rights on Election Day? The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), along with other Asian American organizations, seeks volunteers to help monitor elections and conduct non-partisan voter surveys at poll sites in Asian American neighborhoods.

In past elections, Asian Americans have faced a series of barriers in exercising their right to vote. For example, poll workers were hostile and made racist remarks, poll sites had too few interpreters to assist Asian American voters, translated voting materials were missing or hidden from voters, and ballots were mistranslated listing Democratic candidates as Republicans, and vice versa.

Want to help with exit polling and poll monitoring on November 8? Sign up to volunteer. Attendance at one training session is required for all volunteers. All volunteers must be non-partisan and work a 3-hour shift. (CLE trainings are 90 minutes. Attorneys can receive 1.5 CLE credits including 0.5 ethics credit.)

AALDEF's 2016 Lunar New Year Gala & Justice in Action Awards

Thursday, February 16 at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers



The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund invites you their annual Lunar New Year Gala and Justice in Action Awards Ceremony. I am incredibly humbled and honored to be one of the recipients of the 2016 Justice in Action Award alongside Heidi C. Chen, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Zoetis; and Eric H. Holder Jr., former Attorney General of the United States and partner at Covington & Burling LLP. It's happening Tuesday, February 16 at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers in New York City.

Here are some more details about the event:

2016 Summer Internship Opportunities at AALDEF

Apply for Legal and Undergraduate Internships at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.



The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), which protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans through litigation, legal advocacy, and community education, is currently accepting applicants for legal and undergraduate internships in New York City for the summer of 2016.

Here are details about AALDEF's summer legal internship program:

Job Opportunity: Voting Rights Organizer, AALDEF

Help defend the voting rights of Asian Americans.


Want to help defend the voting rights of Asian Americans? The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund's Asian American Democracy Program seeks to promote fairness in the electoral process and invigorate the civic participation of Asian Americans, especially new citizens and persons not yet fluent in English.

AALDEF is currently looking to hire a Voting Rights Organizer who will be responsible for mobilizing Asian American community groups for a non-partisan exit poll of Asian American voters and overseeing volunteers for Election Day poll monitoring for the 2016 Presidential Election.

Here are some more details about the job:

Korean restaurant ordered to pay $2.67 million in back wages

Kum Gang San failed to pay minimum wage and overtime and stole tips from workers.



In New York, a federal magistrate judge has awarded $2.67 million in damages to eleven workers claiming wage theft against Kum Gang San, a Korean restaurant with branches in Manhattan and Flushing.

Judge Tells Korean-Restaurant Owner in Queens to Pay $2.7 Million in Back Wages

Last Thursday, the court ruled that Kum Gang San, owner Ji Sung Yoo and two restaurant managers owed $2,672,657 in damages to the workers, who are Korean and Latino. The defendants failed to pay minimum wages and overtime pay and stole tips from the workers, in violation of federal and state labor laws.

The plaintiffs say the restaurant required them to work 10-12 hours a day without overtime pay, or even minimum pay, and routinely stole tips that were owed to wait staff. But the last straw was making the employees pick vegetables at the owner's farm outside the city. Oh hell no.

Holiday Giving: Donate to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund

A national organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans.



Looking for a worthy cause to donate some holiday cash? Throughout the month of December, I'll try to spotlight projects, causes and organizations that could use support through your generous giving.

Considering making a donation to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), a New York-based national organization which is celebrating forty years of important civil rights work for the Asian American community through litigation, advocacy, education, and organizing.

Here's AALDEF's 40th anniversary slideshow video:

Sign up to help defend voting rights for Asian Americans

Volunteer as a poll monitor on Election Day

Do you want to help defend voting rights for Asian Americans?

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund is looking for volunteers to help monitor upcoming midterm elections for bilingual ballots under the federal Voting Rights Act and to document instances of anti-Asian voter disenfranchisement.

Volunteers Needed On Election Day, Nov. 4, 2014

They're looking for volunteers in to work 3-hour shifts on Election Day at polls in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC. There will be a 90-minute training session for all volunteers.

Here's schedule of AALDEF's poll monitoring trainings:

Chinatown garment workers win $1.2 million in damages for labor law violations

Ah yes, the old phantom boss trick. Nice try.



Justice! Passing along this news from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund... This week, a Manhattan federal judge awarded thirteen Chinatown garment workers over $1.2 million in damages for unpaid minimum wage and overtime pay owed between 2005 to 2010.

The plaintiffs -- thirteen Chinese immigrant garment workers represented by AALDEF -- were employed at the Walker Street Factory six or seven days a week, regularly toiling over 10 to 12 hours a day or even longer when the factory was rushing to complete some garments. The workers were paid by the piece and often did not earn the minimum wage or receive overtime pay.

Are Chinatowns disappearing?

Join AALDEF for a briefing on gentrification in Philadelphia, Boston and New York Chinatowns.



For more than a century, Chinatowns have been home to immigrant families, and an essential part of our Asian American heritage and history. But Chinatowns on the East Coast are on the verge of disappearing.

In the first-ever study of its kind, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund embarked on a three-city land-use study of Chinatowns in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, and found that in each city, city governments accelerated gentrification in these neighborhoods. Government policies were directly tied to the fact that White populations are growing faster in Chinatowns than they are overall in all three cities.

On Wednesday, October 9, join AALDEF for a webinar presenting its findings with the report authors, community organizers, and affected citizens. Here are some more details:

AALDEF seeks Bengali-English interpreter

Just passing along this message from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York...

AALDEF's Anti-Trafficking Initiative seeks Bangladeshi-English interpreter to assist with phone and in-person communications with a potential client as soon as possible. Please contact Ivy Suriyopas at isuriyopas@aaldef.org or call 212 966-5932 ext. 235.

AALDEF is a national organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans through litigation, advocacy, education, and organizing. For more information about their work, visit AALDEF's website.

New report reveals half of Asian American students in New York City schools have been bullied

AALDEF and Sikh Coalition release "snapshot" study of Asian American public school students.

A new report on bullying of Asian American students in New York City reveals that half of all students surveyed have been the target of bias-based bullying and harassment: New Report: Back to School Includes Bias-Based Harassment of Asian and Sikh Students in NYC.

The report, "One Step Forward, Half a Step Back," released by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and The Sikh Coalition -- their third bullying study in five years -- reveals that the city's 2008 bias-based harassment measure, Chancellor's Regulation A-832, has done little to substantially diminish harassment faced by Asian American students in city public schools.

Of the 163 Asian American middle school and high school students surveyed, 50% reported incidents of harassment. Since the last survey of Asian American students in 2009, bullying incidents have increased over 20%. The study also found significant, unsatisfactory shortfalls in school measures in the prevention and follow-up to bullying incidents.

AALDEF files racial harassment complaint on behalf of Kentucky middle school student

This week, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights on behalf of a Kentucky middle school student who says she has suffered racial harassment for several years: Civil Rights Group Files Racial Harassment Complaint on behalf of Asian Middle School Basketball Player.

14-year-old Milena Clarke, an Asian-Kazakh adoptee and recent graduate of Russell Middle School in Kentucky, has been the target of severe, persistent, and ongoing racial harassment in the Russell Independent School District's Red Devils basketball program since July 2011 -- including being called racial slurs like "Russian chink," "gook," and "commie."

Why We Rise: Undocumented Youth Speak Out

Got this passed along to me from AALDEF... Why We Rise is a compelling new 13-minute documentary featuring three young Asian American New Yorkers who reveal what it's like to grow up without having legal immigration status. It's a unique glimpse into the struggles of real individuals whose lives are affected by the debate raging in Congress over immigration reform. Check it out:

Internship Opportunity: AALDEF Communications Internship Summer 2013

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund is a national organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans. Central to AALDEF's initiatives is educating Asian Americans, policymakers, and the general public about the legal rights of Asian Americans, litigating cases that have a major impact, providing legal resources to community-based organizations, and facilitating grassroots community organizing efforts.

AALDEF is currently accepting applicants for their Communications Internship for summer 2013. Undergraduate and graduate students will have the opportunity to develop skills in social media, writing, media outreach, public policy education, research, web site maintenance and design, public relations, event planning, and databasing. Here are some more details:

New Report: Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and Its Impact on American Muslims

This week, American Muslim civil liberties groups released a new report documenting the devastating impact of the New York Police Department's extensive surveillance programs targeting American Muslims throughout the Northeast -- surveillance efforts that ultimately failed to generate a single lead over the course of six years: New Report: "Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and its Impact on American Muslims."

Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and Its Impact on American Muslims is a collection of voices from affected community members reflecting how the NYPD's spying and infiltration creates a pervasive climate of fear and suspicion that encroaches upon every aspect of their religious, political, and community lives.

From AALDEF's press release:

Asian American organizations urge Supreme Court to strike down Arizona's discriminatory voter registration law

This week, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed an amici curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, challenging the legality of Proposition 200, Arizona's new restrictive voter registration law. According to AALDEF, Proposition 200 will unfairly burden naturalized citizens, who make up almost 40% of the state's Asian American population.

The brief was filed with twelve other Asian American organizations that conduct voter registration drives in states with laws similar to Arizona's, or whose state legislatures are considering such laws -- laws that will make voter registration more burdensome for Asian American voters and will impair the ability of grassroots groups to register Asian American voters.

Here's more info from AALDEF's press release:

AALDEF releases detailed findings from exit poll of Asian American voters

This week, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund released detailed findings from its nonpartisan multilingual exit poll of 9,096 Asian American voters in the November 2012 Presidential Elections, the largest survey of its kind in the nation. The results indicated that Asian Americans vary in political beliefs and on policies across ethnic lines and by geographic location.

While three-quarters (77%) of Asian Americans polled voted for Barack Obama for President, as many as 96% of Bangladeshi Americans voted for Obama, compared to 44% of Vietnamese Americans. In addition, while Asian Americans in the Northeast voted for Obama at high levels (89% in PA and 86% in NY), as few as 16% of Asian Americans polled in Louisiana voted for Obama.

Here are some key findings from the poll:

aaldef 2013 summer internships

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund is a national organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans. By combining litigation, advocacy, education, and organizing, AALDEF works with Asian American communities across the country to secure human rights for all.

If you've got plans to be in New York next summer, June 3 through August 9, AALDEF is currently looking qualified folks to fill unpaid ten-week summer 2013 internships in the following program areas:

aaldef spring 2013 internships

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, founded in 1974, is the first organization on the East Coast to protect and promote the legal rights of Asian Americans through litigation, legal advocacy, and community education.

Want to help out? AALDEF is currently looking for qualified undergraduate, graduate and law students to fill several spring 2013 unpaid internships in the following program areas: