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Please join us for an important immigrant rights seminar. This meeting is for all members and allies of the Asian and Pacific Islander community and everyone else who cares about and desires to learn about immigrant rights.
You will hear from local activists and immigrant rights attorney. The information that will be shared is IMPORTANT FOR EVERYONE, not just those who are undocumented or know someone that is. Only when all of our community members are informed and know their rights, can our at-risk community be protected.
To make it convenient for all to attend, this seminar will be available both IN-PERSON and ON ZOOM.
Organized by the Asian American Pacific Islander Coalition of North Bay (AAPIC), the Sonoma County Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS).
Supported by the Sonoma County Rohnert Park-Cotati Regional Library.
Program
- Know Your Rights: Understanding Your Constitutional Protections
- Immigrant Legal Status and Rights
- North Bay Rapid Response Network
- Q&A
More Information
- Free admission - Pre-registration is recommended.
- Presentation will be in English.
- Program starts promptly at 10:30 am. (Doors open at 10:00 am for check-in).
- Light refreshments will be available.
- Wheelchair accessible.
- Inquiry: info@aapicnorthbay.org
Speaker's Bios
Rodel Rodis
Rodel E. Rodis has been a practicing California attorney since 1980, with a special emphasis on immigration law. He had also been an instructor of Philippine History and Filipino American history in the School of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University and at Laney College (1972-1978). He is the first Filipino American elected to public office in San Francisco serving four terms as a member of the San Francisco Community College Board (1991-2009).
Prior to his election, Rodel was appointed to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission where he served as its president from 1987-1991. After his election to the College Board, he was appointed to the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury (2011). He also wrote a weekly column at the Philippine News (1987-2002, at Asian Week and at the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Inquirer.net). He is also the author of “Telltale Signs of Filipinos in America” (INA Press, 1992). He was also the co-founder of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA.com) and its legal counsel since its founding in 1997.
Priyanka Pokharel
Priyanka is a Staff Attorney at VIDAS (Vital Immigrant Defense Advocacy) in Sonoma County, specializing in immigration law. She holds an LL.M. from the University of Michigan and has worked with government bodies, international organizations, and nonprofits to advance the rights of marginalized communities, particularly women and displaced individuals. Before VIDAS, Priyanka practiced as a Human Rights Attorney in Nepal, focusing on legal reform, policy advocacy, and direct representation for individuals facing systemic discrimination. She also contributed to research on gender dynamics and human rights during Nepal’s Maoist-led Civil War.
At VIDAS, Priyanka focuses on removal defense as well as family-based petitions, U visas, VAWA, adjustment of status, work permits, and non-immigrant visas. Passionate about gender equity and immigrant rights, she actively engages in policy discussions and systemic legal reforms. Priyanka speaks Nepali, English, and Hindi.
Vicki Smith
Vicki Smith has been a North Bay Rapid Response Network steering committee member since its start in 2017. In June 2017 she trained as a Legal Observer for ICE raids and has been actively involved in North Bay Rapid Response Network Accompaniment. Vicki is a founding member of QAA, Queer Asylum Accompaniment, helping LGBTQI asylum seekers get resettled in Sonoma County.
Vicki earned her TESOL certificate in 2008 from SSU and taught ESL from the mid-90s to 2019 primarily to our Sonoma County Mexican and Central American immigrants at the Graton Day Labor Center and in an adult ESL evening program at Sheppard School in Santa Rosa.
Vicki worked extensively with Salvadoran refugee organizations in the 1980s. She journeyed to Rome in 2018 with the Salvadoran refugee community for Monsignor Oscar Romero’s canonization. In 1999 she and her partner adopted two teenage Honduran sisters whose father had been deported from Santa Rosa. She supported their father while he was in detention and after his deportation. Vicki’s daughters, now almost 40, are through the documentation/immigration process and are naturalized citizens.
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