Client Stories
Kim*, a 20-year-old Chinese American woman, wants to pursue a career in financial planning.
She is a business major at a local Cal State university. After graduation, Kim plans to pursue an M.B.A. But there may a significant obstacle to attaining her dream career: She is an undocumented immigrant.
In August 2012, she came to APALC for legal help in applying for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) – a temporary status that allows some undocumented immigrants to obtain work permits and to be safe from deportation for a two-year period.
Annabelle and her husband Emilio Santos were among the approximately 4,500 immigrants who became citizens at a naturalization ceremony in April at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
During the ceremony, a hum of excitement permeated the convention hall as the thousands of immigrants, along with their friends and family members, proudly listened to the presiding judge. The crowd erupted in applause after the judge welcomed them as new citizens of the United States.
Jim Shee was driving to his birthday party in Phoenix on April 6, 2010 when a police officer pulled him over and asked him for his “papers.”
“I asked him why he had stopped me,’’ recalled Shee, a lifelong U.S. citizen of Spanish and Chinese descent who lives in Litchfield Park, Arizona. “He said I looked suspicious.”
After reviewing Shee’s driver’s license and other documents, the officer let him go without a citation.
“I was burned up, mad,’’ he said. “There was no reason to stop me.”
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Our mission is to advocate for civil rights, provide legal services and education, and build coalitions to positively influence and impact Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders and to create a more equitable and harmonious society.