News

11.06.2023

New Report Published On Election Hero Day Documents Findings of City’s Only Language Access Poll Watching Program

Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago dispatched poll watchers to monitor language and disability access during February and April municipal elections


CHICAGO 
– Today, on National Election Hero Day, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago is releasing a report that summarizes its nonpartisan poll watching observations from the 2023 Chicago municipal elections, using data collected by poll monitors who were dispatched to monitor language and disability access at the polls.

Federal laws set a baseline for localities to provide language assistance at polls, and local governments can provide additional protections.

“A city as vibrant and diverse as Chicago needs to have language access protections, beyond the federal requirements, to ensure that our democracy is inclusive and representative,” said Kimberly Leung, Voting Rights Legal Fellow at Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago.

The report, which was shared with the Chicago Board of Elections (CBOE), found that at most locations visited, 98 percent, translated ballots were available in the required languages. At the same time, the report notes that additional steps should be taken to make existing resources better known. According to the report, “Despite Limited English Proficient (LEP) assistance being available through features like touchscreen voting machines, our poll watchers shared that, when you enter a polling place, it is not clear that any assistance for LEP voters is available.”

The report also highlights the importance of hiring and retaining bilingual or multilingual poll workers.

Advancing Justice | Chicago identified several systemic areas for improvement including:

  • Improving training so that poll workers are better equipped to assist LEP voters and voters with disabilities;
  • Hire additional bilingual poll workers from the communities they are working in;
  • Creating new polling place signs to increase visibility on the type of assistance and resources available for LEP voters and voters with disabilities; and
  • Hiring staff with dedicated responsibilities to conduct outreach to Korean and Filipino communities.

During the February elections, Advancing Justice | Chicago monitored 105 precinct polling places. In April 106, precinct polling places and eight vote centers were monitored. Volunteers observed 99 percent of the designated Asian language precinct polling locations.

Advancing Justice | Chicago started its poll watching program in 2003. The program aims 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. Advancing Justice | Chicago will be monitoring the 2024 elections and is accepting new volunteers. To read the full report click here.

###

Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago builds power through collective advocacy and organizing to achieve racial equity. We do this by developing grassroots leaders, advocacy, and civic engagement.

Read More
10.26.2023

Statement on Death of Wadea Al-Fayoume and Rising Islamophobia

Our hearts are heavy with the news from Plainfield, Illinois, where a landlord violently attacked six-year-old Palestinian American boy Wadea Al-Fayoume and his mother Hanaan Shahin in a horrific act of Islamophobia. The attack took Wadea’s life and left his mother severely injured. Less than a week later, a man threatened to shoot two Muslim men in Lombard, Illinois.

Multiple Muslim and Jewish American groups have reported upticks in threats and hate mail in the past week. With escalating violence and climbing death tolls in Gaza, we know that these developments abroad, and the media narrative surrounding them, impact our communities at home. We mourn the loss of innocent lives in Plainfield, Palestine, and Israel, and we offer our deepest condolences to all families who have lost loved ones.

The threat to Muslim American communities and anyone perceived to be Muslim has particularly intensified as politicians at all levels of government and members of the media have fanned the flames of Islamophobia with selective outrage over Hamas’s attack on Israeli civilians while remaining silent on what a United Nations expert is calling a “grave danger of mass ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians by the Israeli government.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago calls on politicians and members of the media to share a complete and nuanced story of continued developments so as not to obscure historical context and endanger more of our neighbors with the horrifying consequences of rhetoric that paints an entire community as violent.

Read More
09.08.2023

Erase The Gang Database Coalition Celebrates First Major Public Safety Victory Under Johnson Administration

Below is a statement from the Erase the Gang Database Coalition:

“After a years-long campaign, the Erase the Gang Database coalition celebrates yesterday’s vote by Chicago’s Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability to erase the city’s racist and ineffective gang database.

This moment was years in the making after Chicagoans across the city made their voices loud and clear that they do not support a system that targets and criminalizes Black and brown people.

Community groups held rallies, protests, press conferences, signed petitions, filed lawsuits, and more to bring an end to the database, which was deemed ineffective by the city’s own Inspector General in an April 2019 audit. Anthony Driver and the CCPSA heard those calls and took appropriate action.

Though we know this is just the first step in ending the city’s harmful surveillance practices, we are committed to making sure no other databases are created and that those harmed by this system are made whole again.

This is the first major victory to reimagine public safety under the Johnson administration and fulfills a major campaign promise. The success of the Erase the Gang Database campaign is a significant milestone that demonstrates Chicago is ready to implement alternatives to systems of racist policing and instead prioritize addressing root causes of violence by investing in our communities. Our coalition is eager to continue this momentum by working to support and pass initiatives like Bring Chicago Home, Stop Shotspotter, Treatment Not Trauma, and other important proposals that safeguard the lives and futures of the city’s residents.”

###

The Erase the Gang Database Coalition is made up of organizations in Chicago, Illinois organizing against criminalization, surveillance, incarceration and police violence. 

Read More
07.28.2023

Advancing Justice | Chicago and AAMP strongly support conversion of Broadway Armory into temporary shelter for asylum-seekers. 

Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago and Asian American Midwest Progressives are non-profit organizations dedicated to building power through collective advocacy and organizing to achieve racial equity. Many of our community leaders call the historically diverse neighborhoods of Uptown and Edgewater home and organize with Asian Americans and allies across Chicagoland for a more just and equitable city and state for all.

As organizations committed to supporting immigrants and refugees and centering the needs of our most vulnerable community members, we strongly support the move to convert the Broadway Armory into a temporary shelter for recently arrived asylum-seekers.

Uptown and Edgewater have for decades been home to generations of refugees and migrants from all over the world. As Asian Americans whose families have been displaced by war, economic hardship, and political instability, we understand intimately the trauma and difficulties of fleeing your home country and seeking safety in another land.

The difficulty of finding safe housing solutions for our new neighbors comes as no surprise. Chicago is in a housing crisis. With more than 65,000 individuals experiencing houselessness in Chicago, our local agencies have been overwhelmed and underfunded for decades.

We urge the city to continue to identify safe temporary shelters for migrants and move asylum-seekers out of police stations as soon as possible. In addition, we know the city can and must use this moment as an opportunity to greatly expand its affordable housing system and create long-term solutions. Permanent solutions like the Bring Chicago Home campaign to create a dedicated fund for affordable housing are necessary to ensure that all residents have a safe place to live.

We look forward to continuing our work with community partners and allies to ensure Chicago is truly a sanctuary city—for newly arrived asylum-seekers and for all people who call our city home. 

### 

Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to building power through collective advocacy and organizing to achieve racial equity. Advancing Justice | Chicago focuses on five key issue areas: immigrant justice, language access, criminal justice reform & public safety for all, voting rights & democracy, and education equity.  

Asian American Midwest Progressives (AAMP) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organizaiton dedicated building political power in the Midwest through collective advocacy and electoral organizing to achieve racial equity. Founded in 2019, AAMP currently has chapters in Illinois and Ohio.  

Read More
07.10.2023

Chicago Racial Justice Organizations Strongly Support Mayor Johnson’s Appointments to Board of Education

For Immediate Release: July 10, 2023
Contact: Ankur Singh | asingh@advancingjustice-chicago.org
Grace Pai | gpai@advancingjustice-chicago.org

Chicago Racial Justice Organizations Strongly Support Mayor Johnson’s Appointments to Board of Education


CHICAGO
— We, the undersigned organizations, strongly support and congratulate Mayor Brandon Johnson’s
recently announced appointees to the Chicago Board of Education: Mariela Estrada, Mary Fahey Hughes, Rudy Lozano Jr, Michelle Morales, Jianan Shi, Dr. Elizabeth Todd-Breland, and Tanya D. Woods. These appointees bring a diverse range of expertise, identities, professional and life experiences, and community ties that will help them represent and make decisions on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Chicago Public Schools students and families.

As organizations that work on education equity issues, youth organizing, and racial justice campaigns, we are thrilled that Mayor Johnson has selected a well-rounded group of individuals who each bring critical perspectives to their roles.

The appointees include experts in special education, juvenile justice/systems-involved youth, early childhood education, student-centered learning, bilingual education, alternative education, and restorative and transformational justice. All seven have served on a Local School Council. The vast majority have deep ties to community-based organizations, youth and/or parent engagement, and grassroots organizing. Six of the seven appointees are current or former Chicago Public Schools parents. Four are former K-12 educators in Chicago. Two are immigrants and four were raised in multilingual families. In addition, Dr. Elizabeth Todd-Breland is a sitting member of the Chicago Board of Education who will continue in her role and bring institutional knowledge and continuity to the new board.

This thoughtful group of leaders represents the diversity of our great city, but we know that equity isn’t satisfied simply by representation. It is their thoughtfulness around community leadership, their openness to new ideas, and their accountability to the communities historically ignored in Chicago policymaking that makes us most proud to call this group our new Chicago Board of Education.

We look forward to working with this Board to center the voices of the 89% of students who are BIPOC, and 78% who are low-income. Until we have a fully elected school board in 2027, we know these appointed leaders will play a critical role in advancing equity across our schools. We look forward to partnering with them on that mission.

Signed,

Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment
Asian American Midwest Progressives
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
Cambodian Association of Illinois
Casa Michoacan – FEDECMI
Chicago Housing Initiative
Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
Chinese American Museum of Chicago
Chinese American Service League
Chinese Mutual Aid Association
Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community
Cook County College Teachers Union – Local 1600
Crossroads Fund
Field Foundation of Illinois
Grassroots Collaborative
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Indo-American Center
Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy
Japanese American Citizens League Chicago
Japanese American Service Committee
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA)
Midwest Asian Health Association
Northside Action for Justice
OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, Greater Chicago Chapter
Palenque LSNA
People Matter
Ping Tom Park Advisory Council
Project: VISION, Inc.
South Asian American Policy and Research Institute (SAAPRI)
United African Organization
United Working Families
Urban Village Church, Wicker Park
Woods Fund Board of Directors

Read More
Previous PageLoad More Posts