Speech #1040074007

Mr. Speaker. today I rise to share with you and my colleagues that after 16 years. attorney Bill Tamayo. leaves the Asian Law Caucus [ALC] where he directed the immigrant rights project working on behalf of lowincome Immigrants and refugees. to join the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A 1978 graduate of the Martin Luther King. Jr.. School of Law. University of California at Davis. attorney Tamayo has set a standard of commitment. dedication and community activism as an attorney. advocate and as a human being concerned with the quality of life of his fellow citizens. Bill served as cocounsel on civil and human rights issues including immigration raidsInternational Molders and Allied Workers Union. Local 164 versus Nelsonand succeeded in legal challenges of Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] regulations on the exclusion of Asian elderly who received public benefits. deportation of foreigntrained Filipino nurses. restriction on legalization and the building of INS detention centers In Oakland and Vallejo. CA. He was cocounsel in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission versus Tortillerla La Major. a landmark 1991 decision holding that undocumented workers are protected by the employment discrimination provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bill understood the importance of legal challenges. however. what makes him distinct from others in the legal profession is that also became legislative advocate. He worked and spoke out against various proposals to cut back on legal immigration. due process rights of immigrants and for the battered immigrant spouse provisions of the violence Against Women Act. He has published several articles on immigration rights. and on Asian Americans and public policy on Immigration matters and on Asian American political. Bill has served on the Boards of the Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Services. Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum. and the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. He served as the chair of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. From 198688. he was a National vicepresident of the National Lawyers Guild. In the 16 years with the Asian Law Caucus.