Making a Difference in the U.S.A.

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Deepa Iyer (center) during a SAALT demonstration in favor of immigration reform. (Courtesy South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT))

An Activist's Vocation: Social Justice, Equality

By Lea M. Terhune

When Deepa Iyer moved from India to Kentucky she was 12 years old, an awkward age for a young girl to make such a drastic adjustment. Blazing a path from there to being the executive director of the increasingly influential South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT) took a combination of hard work, timely opportunity, and key influences that shaped her perceptions of democracy. Iyer has dedicated her life to making a difference, and being a woman and a member of an ethnic minority has not held her back. She helped push important civil rights legislation through to adoption, testifies before the U.S. Congress on immigration issues, and works to educate immigrants on their rights.

Above, Deepa Iyer. (Courtesy Deepa Iyer)Below, SAALT members pose at a regional conference. (Courtesy SAALT)

"Part of the reason I am active with an organization like SAALT and really believe in the mission of civic and political engagement is due to the adjustment period that I had and some of the experiences that my family and I faced," she says. These were not unusual or traumatic experiences, but she recalls times "when my family felt marginalized and isolated in the community."

This lawyer-activist says people made assumptions about as her family's origins and their ability to speak English based on inaccurate stereotypes. Seeing other immigrants and minorities have similar experiences "shaped my desire to become part of a movement in the United States that was based on social justice and equality," she says.

That, she says, is "the promise of America, in that there is this amazing diversity in race, national origin, in so many ways, and the promise is that we can all have the same rights and share the same benefits and privileges that come with the Constitution." The opportunity for social justice is great, she says, "but it's also a struggle and it's something that sometimes gets harder with time."

Iyer recalls that it was an immigration clinic at Notre Dame University in Indiana, where she got her law degree, that piqued her interest and provided information about immigrant rights issues and the legal challenges they face. She soon knew she wanted to pursue civil rights work, leaving an Indianapolis law firm to take a job with the Asian American Justice Center, where she learned the importance of governmental, legislative, and grassroots advocacy. For several years she was a trial attorney in the civil rights division at the Department of Justice, which gave her valuable experience in litigation. She left within a year after September 11, 2001, "primarily because it was difficult for me to be in the Department of Justice as a civil rights lawyer when the government was also responsible for implementing initiatives that were so detrimental" to some minority communities, she says.

Subsequently, while legal director for the Washington, D.C., area Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, she worked with a coalition that successfully advocated for the passage of a language- access law in the city, one of the few in the country. It mandates multilingual materials and, sometimes, that staff be provided by city agencies.

Since 2004 when she joined SAALT as director, she has spearheaded programs that effectively educate immigrants about their rights and issues important to them. SAALT hosts town meetings and other awareness-raising events, which have intensified ahead of the 2008 presidential elections in which immigration has been a top issue.

In her testimony in Congress in May 2007 before the House subcommittee on immigration reform, Iyer appealed for legal means for immigrant workers to contribute to the U.S. economy and become permanent residents.

Emphasizing that immigrants range from naturalized citizens, to those on special visas, to the undocumented, Iyer says, "I don't think civic engagement and civic participation is just about voting and being a citizen," adding, "You don't have to be a citizen in order to feel connected to this country and in order to feel connected to your community."

Defending civil rights is Deepa Iyer's passion. Early on, she says, "I found what I am passionate about and I feel really lucky about that. I was able to recognize what I was interested in … and chart a path based on that interest in what moves me and drives me."

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