As part of the University of Wisconsin Law School’s annual Community Justice Week, Deepa Iyer, Executive Director of South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow, will speak on "Immigration Policy in a Post 9.11 World: The Impact on Asian Americans" on Wednesday, March 5, 2008, from 2:30 to 4 in Room 2260 (Godfrey & Kahn Hall).

South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow is a national non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the full and equal participation by South Asians in the civic and political life of the United States.

Iyer began her public interest career at the Asian American Justice Center (formerly the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium), where she managed the Census 2000, Language Rights, and Voting Rights programs. She then served as Trial Attorney at the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, where she represented individuals suffering from workplace discrimination because of their immigration status or national origin, and assisted with the Division’s efforts to address backlash discrimination in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist acts. 

Iyer most recently served as the Legal Director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, where she institutionalized a multilingual legal referral hotline and organized a pan-ethnic coalition that successfully advocated for linguistic access to government services and benefits in the District of Columbia.

She has taught classes on legal issues affecting Asian Americans at Columbia University and Hunter College in New York City and has written on language access and post 9-11 backlash.

Iyer’s talk is sponsored by the UW Law School’s student organization APALSA-SALSA, the Asian-Pacific-American and South Asian Law Students Association.

Submitted by on March 4, 2008

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