Tuyet Le dead: Asian American advocate and activist was 53

Few have done more to amplify the voices of the city's Asian American community than Tuyet Le.

As executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago from 1999 to 2018, she headed up poll-watching operations to ensure access for Asian American voters and coordinated with the city's election board to resolve issues.

Her group sent out candidate questionnaires and shared information — in several languages — with other Asian groups that are part of the Pan-Asian Voter Empowerment Coalition.

She helped organize the first-ever Asian American Caucus of state legislators, whose districts had a significant number of Asian voters. At first, the legislators in the group were mostly white.

"And now, 10 years later, we have an Asian American Caucus that's actually majority Asian American," said Van Huynh, who previously worked with Ms. Le and now heads up the Vietnamese Association of Illinois.

When Mayor Richard M. Daley tried to remove Asian American contractors from affirmative action programs, Ms. Le successfully rallied the community to challenge the move.

Ms. Le died Feb. 8 from lung cancer. She was 53.

Because many Asian Americans use the language of their native country, Ms. Le championed a bill that ensured state agencies have a language access plan to help non-English speakers access state benefits. Gov. JB Pritzker signed the bill last year.

Ms. Le helped organize the first first mayoral forum on issues affecting Asian Americans for which about 1,000 people showed up at St. Augustine College on the North Side in 2011. To the dismay of organizers, mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel did not attend the event. His absence was represented by an empty chair on stage.

When Gov. Bruce Rauner was going to cut funding to immigrant services, Ms. Le and other leaders met with him. The funding was later restored.

She also helped strengthen Chicago's sanctuary city protections for undocumented immigrants and helped pass the state’s TRUST Act, which blocks local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration agents.

A number of young activists she worked with said they'd never seen anyone like Ms. Le.

"I grew up working-class among women who worked in sewing factories and warehouses, and there was a lot of emphasis growing up on getting a job and making good money, and she was the first person I saw where that wasn't her emphasis. It was incredibly powerful," Huynh said.

"She was a role model for me," said Nebula Li, an attorney and community organizer who worked with Ms. Le. "She was an outspoken Asian American with strong progressive ideals and ideas on how to change society."

Part of her legacy is in those who carry on her work.

"I would joke with her that we are her minions who she has trained who are now out in the world organizing and moving all these incredible policies forward because of what we learned from her," Huynh said.

Brandon Lee is a former colleague who remembered her infectious laugh, snarky sense of humor and backbone.

"She believed that just because something hadn't been done before doesn't mean it can't be done," he said. "She was very good about pushing that envelope and pushing that vision into reality and having fun along the way."

Ms. Le was born in Saigon Jan. 21, 1972. Three years later, when the city fell to North Vietnamese forces, she and her family fled aboard a crowded and unstable fishing boat along with hundreds of others.

Days later, a Taiwanese ship pulled alongside with orders to rescue only passengers of Chinese descent. The only two — a father and a daughter — refused to go unless all the refugees were brought aboard. The Taiwanese ship captain relented. The evacuees were brought to the Philippines, processed as refugees and within days the Le family was on their way to the United States. They ended up settling in the Milwaukee area. Her father, Ke Van Le, found work as a machinist. Her mother, Lien Thi Mong Nguyen, cleaned hotel rooms.

After graduating from Nicolet High School, Ms. Le attended Northwestern University where she helped in a successful campaign to create an Asian American studies program.

Ms. Le, who lived in Edgewater, was a foodie and an artist who loved knitting and crocheting.

"Her passing has been really devastating for the Asian American community," Huynh said.

Ms. Le, who is one of five siblings and survived polio as a child, was a longtime board member for Access Living, a Chicago advocacy group for people with disabilities.

A public memorial is being planned for this summer.