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ANNOUNCEMENT
A look back, a look ahead, and a new look
We are pleased to sh
are our
2017 Annual Report
, w
hich reflects on a year spent fighting hard to protect our community's rights to family, to be seen, and to heal. We fought for family unity in the face of unprecedented mass roundups of deportations, for lifesaving health care under repeated attack, and for data to reveal the invisible challenges our Southeast Asian American students encounter. We capped the year by bringing together more than 150 allies from 22 states in our first-ever national equity summit, created to inspire, connect, heal, and strengthen in the spirit of the civil rights movement.
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As we review the lessons learned from last year, we also look forward to an exciting new chapter in SEARAC's story with the launch of our redesigned
website
. We invite you to read more about our national and state policy advocacy work
, our commitment to leveraging collective power
, and the experiences of our community members in their own words
. Be sure to check out our
Resource Hub
, filled with information about the issues impacting our children, our elders, and everyone in between.
Finally, SEARAC is proud to debut its enhanced logo, which honors SEARAC's roots as we rise to meet the new challenges and opportunities of today with strength, boldness, and hope.
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"Together, we will continue to strengthen and expand the civil rights movement and realize our collective dream of a beautiful multiracial, multi-ethnic America."
-SEARAC Executive Director Quyen Dinh
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SAVE partners convene
Local community partners Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association (CMAA), Stone Soup Fresno (SSF), Alliance for Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE), and the Southeast Asian American Education (SEAeD) Coalition gathered together in DC for a strategy and community convening as part of SEARAC's
Southeast Asian American Action & Visibility in Education (SAVE) coalition. SEARAC established the SAVE coalition to increase community education, mobilization, and advocacy among schools, school districts, and state policymakers to ensure that Southeast Asian American student needs are considered and addressed. Our partners will lead the local work in advocating for data disaggregation, as well as addressing the multiple challenges our students face in school: language barriers, insufficient support for parent engagement, and socio-economic obstacles, among other issues that prevent students from accessing and completing higher education.
Additionally, SEARAC recently joined roughly 50 other national civil rights organizations to announce
our civil rights priorities for higher education policies. This announcement comes as Congress considers re-authorizing the Higher Education Act, currently re-named as the Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform
(
PROSPER) Act.
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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
Challenging
Vietnamese detentions
In February, partners at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles
filed a lawsuit to challenge the illegal detention of Vietnamese refugees who came into the country prior to 1995. This lawsuit follows an unprecedented roundup in the Vietnamese community that began in the spring of 2017. Although a current agreement between the United States and Vietnam states that refugees who came into the country prior to 1995 should not be subject to deportation, we saw many of these exact individuals being detained by ICE.
Read and share this
community advisory on the
Trinh v. Homan lawsuit from
Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles to learn about what this lawsuit means, and AAAJ-LA's proposed next steps for individuals currently in ICE detention.
For more information, contact Phi Nguyen at
[email protected]
.
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