ARTIST JOSEFINA LOPEZ; MUNGER, TOLLES & OLSON, LLP AND KOREATOWN IMMIGRANT WORKERS ALLIANCE HONORED AT 4TH ANNUAL NATIONAL IMMIGRATION LAW CENTER DINNER

Courageous luminaries from the legal, community organizing, and entertainment worlds will be honored this year at the National Immigration Law Center’s fourth annual awards dinner in Los Angeles, California. The October 21 celebration will award Real Women Have Curves screenwriter Josefina López; Munger, Tolles & Olson, LLP and the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance for their efforts to defend and advance the fundamental rights of low income immigrants and their families. The event will be emceed by popular radio personality Sonali Kolhatkar, producer and host of KPFK 90.7 FM’s morning drive-time show, Uprising.

Artist advocate honoree Josefina López is best known for her work as screenwriter of the hit movie Real Women Have Curves. A former undocumented immigrant herself, Josefina is one of the leading immigrant screenwriters and playwrights in the entertainment industry. Her latest production, Detained in the Desert, is a satirical drama that explores Arizona’s unconstitutional racial profiling law and what the playwright views as an intensifying anti-immigrant atmosphere and rise in violence against Latinos fueled by extremist media. Josefina has won numerous awards for her work, including a Humanitas Award for Screenwriting in 2002, and a Gabriel García Márquez award from the mayor of Los Angeles in 2003. Community advocate honoree Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance is nationally renowned for its multi-ethnic organizing model, which has led to major victories for Los Angeles workers of all backgrounds.

Founded in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles civil unrest, the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance aims to empower Koreatown’s low-wage immigrant workers, and foster dignity and respect in its neighborhood and workplaces. Some of the organization’s key labor victories include achieving an improved rate of labor law compliance in the Koreatown restaurant industry, resulting in restitution of over $70 million to low-wage Koreatown workers, and securing living-wage agreements with five of the largest Korean-owned supermarkets in Koreatown.

Legal advocate honoree Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP has contributed countless pro bono hours to the most significant legal immigration issues of recent times, including acting as co-counsel in Friendly House et. al v. Whiting et. al., a class action lawsuit against SB 1070, Arizona’s racial profiling law. Founded in 1962 in Los Angeles, the firm is one of the charter signatories to the American Bar Association’s pro bono challenge and consistently devotes attorney time to delivering needed pro bono legal assistance. Munger, Tolles & Olson’s litigators have handled ground-breaking impact litigation in immigration, public benefits, housing, voting rights, campaign finance, disability rights, gay rights, death penalty, and other matters.

The National Immigration Law Center envisions a society in which all people — regardless of race, gender, immigration or economic status — are treated fairly and humanely. NILC uses a variety of tools, including policy analysis, litigation, education and advocacy, to achieve this vision. NILC plays a critical role within the movement for racial, economic and social justice for low-income immigrants.

KJ