Ammiano condemns SCOTUS’ upholding Arizona’s “show me your papers” provision, urges Gov. Brown, AG. Harris to ensure California becomes antidote to Arizona with TRUST Act

June 25, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 25, 2012

Sacramento - In response to the US Supreme Court ruling in the case of Arizona v. United States, Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, (D-SF) and author of California’s TRUST Act (AB 1081), issued the following statement:

While I am relieved the Supreme Court struck down portions of Arizona’s discriminatory law, it is heartbreaking that the most odious provision, the “show me your papers” section (2B), still stands. This should be called the “racial profiling” provision given the painful impact it will have.

With today’s ruling, the court has further legitimized the destructive practice of local police serving as an extension of our broken immigration system. This plunges millions of our friends, neighbors, and family members across the country into greater risk of separation from their loved ones.

But ironically, the damage was in many ways already done – by the federal “Secure” Communities or S-comm deportation program.

S-Comm has burdened our local governments and put even victims and witnesses of crime at risk of deportation, making us all less safe. It has even mistakenly trapped US citizens in our local jails for immigration purposes.

California’s TRUST Act would limit the unjust and onerous detentions for deportation in our local jails of community members who pose no threat to public safety. To ensure that our state does not become another Arizona, I respectfully urge Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris to support the bill.

Statements from the sponsors of the TRUST Act follow. The bill is supported by a broad coalition of organizations and elected officials from across the state.

Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director, National Day Laborer Organizing Network: “The fact that the court could not tell whether on its face section 2(b) conflicts with federal policy means federal policy (i.e. S-Comm) is far too similar to Arizona policy. But it doesn’t have to be that way in California.”

Reshma Shamasunder, Executive Director, California Immigrant Policy Center: “With its decision on the provision that encourages racial profiling, the Supreme Court has effectively turned back the clock on our hard-won civil rights protections. In the wake of this bad ruling, California lawmakers must lead the nation in moving forward once again, by passing the TRUST Act as soon as possible.”

Angela Chan, senior staff attorney, Asian Law Caucus: ”The Trust Act will assist local police in rebuilding trust with Asian, Latino, and many other immigrant communities who are fearful of reporting crime because of S-Comm’s broad deportation dragnet.”

Background: The Arizona law, passed in April 2010, drew widespread condemnation because it would have forced local police to act as immigration agents and unleashed a wave of profiling based on appearance and accent. Immigrant advocates said the program would entangle police in what is an essentially broken immigration system.

At the heart of the similarity between S-Comm and SB 1070 is the fact that under S-Comm, the fingerprints of everyone arrested – even survivors of domestic violence arrested with their abusers – are automatically sent to ICE. Immigration officials then pressure local governments to hold immigrant community members in jail for extra time, at local expense, so that ICE can pick up the individuals for deportation. However, these “hold” requests are voluntary and a number of jurisdictions have already chosen to limit how they respond.

Nearly 7 in 10 of the 72,000 Californians deported either had no convictions or were brought in for minor offenses.

The TRUST Act passed the state Senate Public Safety committee 5-2 on June 12, 2012, and now heads to the Senate floor. The bill sets a minimum standard for local governments not to submit to ICE’s requests to detain people for deportation unless the individual has a serious or violent felony conviction and guards against profiling and wrongful detention of citizens and crime victims.

In an editorial published June 22, the New York Times endorsed the TRUST Act, stating: “The bill would enhance the ability of local departments to fight crime by restoring community trust and saving jail space for serious offenders. It deserves to become law.”

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Close To 1 Million Dreams Protected, 10.5 Million Dreams To Go

June 19, 2012

By Ju Hong, member of ASPIRE (Asian Students Promoting Immigrant Rights through Education)

Although I recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a major in Political Science, I am unable to use my degree to work because I am undocumented. Not only did I face a difficult time to finding ways to work, I also faced constant fear of deportation – until President Obama made an announcement last Friday to stop deportation and provide work permits to a selected group of DREAMers who meet requirements under a new immigration policy.

This historic announcement would not have been possible without the courageous DREAMers who stood up and shared their stories, held events and rallies, contacted elected officials, and led hunger strikes and civil disobedience actions despite risking deportation. After many years of collaborative efforts to demand for justice and equality, the federal government finally made a move to provide a very limited and temporary relief for many undocumented young people in this country.

For many years, I have lived in fear: The fear of facing deportation and of permanently leaving the country I called home; the fear of being separated from my friends, my family, and my community; the fear of not being accepted within my own community; the fear of contacting the police at a time of need; and the fear of losing my hope and dreams in graduating from college. Today, I feel liberated from these fears. Because of this announcement, I can better focus on preparing for my master’s degree program, provide for my family, and continue to advocate for the federal DREAM Act and Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

Prior to June 15, 2012, I was unable to get a job, apply for internships, or qualify for financial aid. Thus, I had to work more than thirty hours of week at a Japanese restaurant, mopping floors and washing dishes, getting paid below minimum wage under the table, while I commuted to school and enrolled as a full-time student at Laney College, Oakland. Sometimes I had to stay up all night to apply for limited scholarship opportunities to meet the deadlines. Today, I feel free from these obstacles. Because of this announcement, I will have open doors of new opportunities to use my degree to work and contribute back to society. Not only will I have the chance to work to support my schoolwork, but also I have capacity to support my family.  Like one of my fellow DREAMers said, “I feel I am normal again.”

With this announcement, an approximate 800,000 young peoples’ dreams are now protected, at least temporarily. This is huge victory for the undocumented community, but the fight is not over. There are thousands of other young DREAMers who are not eligible to apply for deferred action or work permits because of strict requirements under this announcement. For example, DREAMers who are over 30 years old cannot qualify to receive deferred action or work permits. Moving forward, we must stay involved and work with the Obama’s administration to include all DREAMers because they also have the right to DREAM.

Finally, we must continue to fight for the federal DREAM Act and Comprehensive Immigration Reform because this announcement is only a temporary solution. Now more than ever, we have strength, conviction, and power in our hands to organize, mobilize, and take collective actions to solve our broken immigration system. Soon, we will fulfill all the 11.5 million dreams.

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Why Jeremy Lin’s race matters

February 15, 2012

Note: Originally published on http://edition.cnn.com/ under “Opinion.” This article has been re-posted with the permission of the author.

Editor’s note: Ling Woo Liu is the director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education, which helped pass California’s Fred Korematsu Day, the first day in U.S. history named after an Asian American. She is a former reporter and video producer for TIME, CNN’s sister publication, in Hong Kong.

Ling Woo Liu

Ling Woo Liu

(CNN) — A week ago, on feel-good Super Bowl Sunday, TV viewers in the U.S. state of Michigan were subjected to a racist campaign ad sponsored by former Representative and now-Senatorial candidate Pete Hoekstra. The ad, which suggests that his opponent, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, spends too much government money, shows an Asian woman riding a bicycle in a landscape of rice paddies. “Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs,” says the native Californian actress in a mock Chinese accent while addressing “Debbie Spend-It-Now.” Hoekstra also appears, saying at the end, “I approve this message.”

Public condemnation ensued, with demands for an apology and the ad’s removal.

It’s not the first time that China, or any connections to China, have been used to stoke fear this U.S. election season. In early January, a group in support of Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul released a campaign ad slamming then-candidate Jon Huntsman, the former ambassador to China. The “China Jon” ad showed Huntsman speaking Chinese and wearing a red tikka on his forehead (a sacred mark associated with Hinduism) and questioned his adoption of girls from China and India. “Jon Huntsman: American Values?” the ad asks, calling him “The Manchurian candidate,” “Weak on China?” with ostensibly Chinese music in the background.

Paul denounced the ad, telling CNN he had no control over his supporters’ actions.

Then on Thursday, a U.S. Marine sergeant was found not guilty of hazing Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, who committed suicide last April in Afghanistan. A Marine Corps report revealed that Lew had been beaten by his superiors with sand poured in his mouth for falling asleep while on duty. Another Marine was sentenced to 30 days in jail and demoted; a third faces court-martial over the death. Lew’s case along with that of Pvt. Danny Chen, who was found dead in October from an apparent suicide, have spurred Asian American members of Congress to demand hearings on hazing in the military.

Chen, the only Chinese American soldier in his unit in Afghanistan, was called “gook,” “chink” and “dragon lady,” forced to crawl on gravel while fellow troops threw rocks at him, and made to shout instructions in Chinese to fellow troops (no one else in his unit spoke Chinese). The Asian American civil rights group OCA has met with Pentagon officials to demand better treatment of Asians in the military.

Against all of this, Jeremy Lin, a Harvard grad and the NBA’s first U.S.-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, has vaulted himself to stardom. On Saturday, Lin led the Knicks to their fifth straight victory. His 109 points in his first four starts this past week have surpassed Allen Iverson’s to become the most by any player since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976.

Lin’s popularity skyrockets

Jeremy Lin setting the NBA abuzz

Turning it around in China

Read about Linsanity vs. Tebowmania

For those who’ve been following the campaign ad controversies as well as the Lew and Chen cases, Lin’s meteoric rise has been a much-needed sign of hope. But the conversations on Facebook, in bars and living rooms are as diverse as the Asian American community itself. Some are pumped up about seeing an Asian face next to Kobe Bryant’s or moved by Lin’s public devotion to Christianity. Others are analyzing Lin’s academic and athletic prowess and thinking about the role model he’ll be for their children.

Jeremy Lin: The NBA’s breath of fresh air

Lin himself has been candid about the racism he’s encountered along the way. “It’s a sport for white and black people,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2008. “You don’t get respect for being an Asian-American basketball player in the U.S. … I hear everything. ‘Go back to China. Orchestra is on the other side of campus. Open up your eyes.’”

Read how Lin has a shot at basketball immortality

Unfortunately, success doesn’t stamp out racism. Minutes after Lin’s breathtaking career-high 38-point performance against the LA Lakers Friday night, FoxSports.com national columnist Jason Whitlock tweeted “Some lucky lady in NYC is gonna feel a couple inches of pain tonight.” After condemnation by the Asian American Journalists Association, he tweeted an apology, acknowledging that he had “debased a feel-good sports moment. For that, I’m truly sorry.”

Almost exactly a decade ago, some of us remember similar knocks against a certain 7’6″ new kid on the block. USA Today ran a column by Jon Saraceno in 2002 saying, “the [Rockets] franchise could wind up with egg foo yong all over its face” and “What happens the first time a bona fide NBA strongman, say Shaquille O’Neal, whacks [Yao Ming] in the chopsticks?”

Just this past week, a Manchester United fan, Howard Hobson, was banned from matches for three years and fined 200 pounds (US $315) for cursing and making monkey sounds at Stoke City’s Kenwyne Jones, who is from Trinidad.

To be fair, Lin and other minority athletes today have not been subjected to the level of racism that African American sports pioneers faced before them. Jesse Owens was a great American athlete who prevailed despite being born into an officially and unofficially racist society. The African American track star, who had to live in off-campus segregated housing at Ohio State University, went on to win four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Germany, much to the dismay of Adolf Hitler.

Three-quarters of a century later, there are those who want to leave race out of the equation altogether and embrace minority athletes, actors and other pioneers for their skills alone rather than their skin color. “Many people want the debate to end,” says Laurens Grant, the director and producer of “Jesse Owens,” a forthcoming PBS documentary. “But the debate isn’t settled. It won’t end until there’s more opportunity.”

Many of us have been lucky enough to escape the burn of bullying and racism. We might have walked through our schoolyards without hearing taunts from fellow students. We might have gotten the promotions we deserved at work. Our perfect American English may have averted giggles and impatience. We may have served in the armed forces without being treated any differently from fellow troops. And we might have been lucky enough to escape the perpetrators of hate crimes, like the laid-off Detroit autoworkers who in 1982 beat Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, to death with a baseball bat after his bachelor party because they were bitter about competition from Japanese carmakers.

Such xenophobic sentiment gets eerily stirred up by ads like the ones attacking Sen. Stabenow and Jon Huntsman.

Hopefully one day, Americans of Asian descent will no longer be seen as foreigners, economic competition or anything less than equal Americans. Until then, race matters, whether we like it or not.

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re: “Redistricting worries San Francisco’s gay leaders”

July 14, 2011

On July 1st, 2011 the San Francisco Examiner published an article entitled “Redistricting worries San Francisco’s gay leaders.”  In response to that article, Benjamin Leong & Carlo De La Cruz Co-Chair & Political Awareness Chair of the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance wrote this letter to the editor on July 5th, 2011:

Your story last week regarding the redistricting “conflict” between the LGBT and Asian American SF communities oversimplifies a highly complex process.  Among other criteria, redistricting must comply with important factors including the Federal Voting Rights Act, contiguity, and, most importantly, population equality across all the districts.

At its heart, redistricting should be about the enfranchisement of all communities. While the LGBT community and Asian communities are quite different, there are many similarities between the two groups: namely, the constant struggle for fair and accurate representation in the Legislature.

Your framing inaccurately portrays the interests and values of the Asian American community and LGBT community as fundamentally conflicting with one another.  It also continues to make invisible the needs of the community that is both gay and LGBT-identified, many of whom reside in both LGBT and Asian American neighborhoods in our City.

We can find a solution that is win-win, but it takes commitment from both sides to make it happen.

Benjamin Leong
Co-Chair, Gay Asian Pacific Alliance

Carlo De La Cruz
Political Awareness Chair, Gay Asian Pacific Alliance

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Redistricting: What It Is and Why You Should Care

June 21, 2011

By Carlo De La Cruz & Ana Duong

San Francisco – Quiz of the day: In 2001 California had one Asian American elected official representing our communities on the State wide or Federal level—Mike Honda.  How many API elected officials did we have in 2010? Answer: Ten!  In 2010, ten API elected officials were representing our communities across the state in the State Assembly, Senate, and US Congress. 

In less than ten years the API community has grown from having one elected official on the state wide or federal level to having ten, this growth is due in part to the growing numbers of Asian Americans as well as increased civic engagement from the Asian American community.  But the political representation for our community is by no means guaranteed for the next decade; in fact, our community’s ability to have a meaningful voice and vote in the political process all depends on a few lines and maps being drawn right now by the California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC).  After each Census, redistricting takes place to redraw districting plans to reflect the demographic changes and equalize district populations.

The Commission is required by law to hold two sets of public hearings, the first one before maps are drawn and second one to receive feedback on the first draft maps. For a schedule of the public hearings, please visit http://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/hearings.html. The implementation of this new commission gives other California voters the opportunity to get involved in the redistricting process.

On June 10, 2011, the Commission released its first round of draft maps for Congressional, State Assembly, State Senate and Board of Equalization districts.  The maps can be viewed online on the CRC’s website at www.wedrawthelines.ca.gov.   The Commission is currently in the process of holding public hearings throughout the state to collect public input on the maps and will do so until July 12th.  That leaves less than one month for community members, leaders, and advocates to testify before the commission to ensure that the AAPI community is not divided by the redistricting process. Therefore, this time period is crucial for community testimony and public input to ensure the final maps reflect the needs of the community.

District boundaries drawn in the past have resulted in fragmented communities, including AAPI communities. Without public input, the commission will most likely remain unaware of the existing communities of interest and their respective geographic parameters.  The final lines and maps that the CRC adopts will affect elections for the next decade, determining if communities have the ability to vote as one bloc and have a meaningful role in the political process.  In order for our community to protect and extend the gains we’ve made in political representation we must engage in the redistricting process.

The redistricting process is particularly important for the AAPI community in the Bay Area as it means either representation or a silenced voice in the political process.  For example, in the 2001 redistricting, the San Jose neighborhood of Berryessa was split among four State Assembly districts, even though over half of Berryessa’s population is AAPI. District boundaries that split AAPI communities weaken the political voice of AAPI communities. When AAPI communities are fragmented, they do not make up a significant portion of any one district, diminishing their ability to get their elected representatives to address their needs.

In another more recent example, Indian Americans in southern Alameda County said “an early version of the map split Fremont’s fast-growing South Asian community into two congressional districts, diluting its political power” (sfgate.com).  Thanks to community testimony and a large showing of community support, the lines were modified to protect the growing South Asian community in southern Alameda County.   The commission has demonstrated they are committed to hearing and considering public testimony, but that can only happen when the community is present and engaged.  Learn how to testify to the commission at http://www.redistrictingca.org/more-info/.

The Commission will be holding a public hearing on June 25 in San Jose and June 27 in San Francisco to receive more public input before the release of the second draft maps. If you are interested in testifying before the Commission or learning more about the Asian Law Caucus’s Redistricting effort, please contact Carlo De La Cruz at CAPAFR2011@gmail.com.

Want to learn more? Watch the following video brought to you by the Greenlining Institute: http://youtu.be/eqBRz7yu4vs.

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Why Asians (and Other Minorities) Must Get Involved in CA Redistricting

February 2, 2011

NOTE: Originally published on  New America Media on January 24, 2011.

This article has been re-posted with the permission of the authors.

By Eugene Lee and Deanna Kitamura, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center


LOS ANGELES—California has started a new experiment that will affect who represents you in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. Until now, the state Legislature has had the power to redraw the boundaries of state and congressional districts, a process known as redistricting. Because of recently approved ballot propositions, the Legislature’s redistricting authority has been delegated to a 14-member commission made up of California voters. The creation of the new commission presents the public with a golden opportunity to get involved in how the lines are drawn.

The commission’s job is to replace existing Assembly, state Senate, Board of Equalization and Congressional districts with new districts based on 2010 Census data. Over the last decade, some areas of the state, such as the Central Valley and the Inland Empire, have experienced significant population growth, while other areas have had stagnant growth or population losses. The commission’s task is to account for these changes and create new districts containing roughly the same number of people as other districts of the same kind. Although partisan considerations often dominate how redistricting is carried out, the population equality requirement is the reason why redistricting happens in the first place.

District boundaries drawn in the past have fragmented communities of color, including Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. For example, in the 2001 redistricting, the San Jose neighborhood of Berryessa was split among four state Assembly districts, even though over half of Berryessa’s population is AAPI, sharing common interests and needs. When communities are divided, their ability to appeal to their elected representatives to address their needs is diminished.
By law, the commission must hold two sets of public hearings. These hearings are an opportunity for the public to educate the commission on how different communities believe the commission should draw the electoral maps. The first set of hearings is to receive input before any maps are drawn and the second set is to receive feedback following the drawing of the commission’s proposed maps.

Public input is important to the commission’s ability to keep together “communities of interest,” one of the factors the commission must consider. A community of interest is a population that shares common social and economic interests that should be kept together in order that the population’s interests are fairly and effectively represented. If divided, the community’s representation would be ineffective because it would be required to appeal to two or more elected officials, as in the case of Berryessa. Many different types of communities can make up a community of interest, such as an immigrant community with shared language-access needs, a low-income neighborhood with specific educational needs, or a geographic area where many of the residents work in the same industry.

Communities of interest are not generally labeled on maps. That’s why it is crucial that local community members come forward to educate the commission. Without public input, the commission is unlikely to know whether a specific community of interest exists and is even more unlikely to know the geographic parameters of the community of interest.

If you are interested in ensuring that the commission keeps together AAPI communities of interest, there’s a simple way to get involved. The Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting (CAPAFR), anchored by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, is holding meetings throughout California to focus on AAPI communities of interest. CAPAFR’s goal is to submit proposals that show the commission how AAPI communities of interest can be best kept together, while also respecting other communities of interest. To see a calendar of CAPAFR meetings or to learn more about redistricting in general, please visit www.capafr.org.

When will we know how this new redistricting experiment turns out? August 15, 2011, which is the commission’s deadline to adopt final redistricting plans. Before that deadline approaches, the commission must hear from the public. If the public does not come forward, communities could get divided in the redistricting process.

The next CAPAFR community meeting in San Francisco and San Mateo will be held February 24th 5:30pm-8pm at the Asian Law Caucus 55 Columbus Ave. San Francisco CA 94111. To RSVP please contact CAPAFR2011@gmail.com or visit http://www.capafr.org/sf-san-mateo-3rd-community-mtg1

Eugene Lee is the voting rights project director at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, a member of Asian Center of Advancing Justice. (www.apalc.org). He directs work on voter protection, Voting Rights Act compliance, and ballot access policy and is currently working to strengthen the voice of AAPI communities during the 2011 redistricting process.

Deanna Kitamura is the statewide redistricting manager at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, a member of Asian Center of Advancing Justice. She works with community partners to ensure that AAPI communities in California are engaged in the redistricting process.

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Flip-flopping About a Bad Policy

October 15, 2010

NOTE: Originally published in the Huffington Post on October 14, 2010

This article has been re-posted with permission of the author.

By Margaret Huang

Last week, the Arlington County (Virginia) Board sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notifying the federal agency that the County does not wish to participate in the “Secure Communities” Initiative (SCI). The letter is a result of a resolution adopted by the County Board on September 28th expressing the County’s intent to withdraw from SCI. Arlington County adopted its resolution based on the repeated public statements by DHS that local jurisdictions could choose not to participate in the program. Very little is known – or understood – about the “Secure Communities” program, in large part due to contradictory information disseminated about the program by DHS. What Arlington County residents do know about “Secure Communities” is troubling for supporters of community policing, civil liberties and human rights.

Read the rest of this entry »

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The Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill on AAPI Communities

July 1, 2010

NOTE: Originally published in White House Office of Public Engagement Blog on June 17, 2010

This article has been re-posted with permission of the author

By Miya Saika Chen and Audrey Buehring

In the last month, we were deployed by the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to join the Unified Area Command in the Gulf Coast and assess the immediate needs of the Southeast Asian American community, who make up one-third of the seafood industry workforce in the region.

We visited community centers, churches and temples in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.  We met with seafood processors, fishers, crabbers, shrimpers, oysterfolk and boat welders, many who have been working in these specialized trades for generations.  Over meals, roundtable discussions and town hall meetings, we listened to people talk about their livelihoods, their deep connection to the sea, and the challenges they face as a result of the devastating oil spill.

In Irvington, Alabama, we spoke to a Thai American crabber who owns two boats and has lived in the United States for over 40 years.  She and her workers set traps and catch crabs during the day, then make deliveries to restaurants and seafood processing plants in the evenings.  She had invested in $17,000 worth of new traps in anticipation of the coming crab season.  All of this has been lost since the oil spill began over seven weeks ago, and she’s been unable to provide for her workers, nor for herself.  During a town hall meeting with Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai and Cambodian Americans, she kindly smiled and said, “Just please put us to work.  We are a proud people.  We don’t want to beg.  We want to work.”

In Biloxi, Mississippi, we heard from the daughter of a Vietnamese American fisherman, who, along with many of her peers, have galvanized a coalition of community groups in the area to organize bilingual community forums for Vietnamese American fishers.  She told us, “Our families are falling apart.  Our lives as we know it are gone.  We will no longer get to eat the seafood our father and brother catch.  We won’t have the opportunity to come help with unloading the shrimp when their boats come in after two weeks out at sea.  We won’t have financial support from them because they can’t do the work they have done for the past 20-30 years – catching shrimp, fish, crab, oysters.  It is very sad to see our family members’ careers as fishermen ending because of this BP oil spill disaster.”

Many Southeast Asian Americans in the Gulf Coast region remain linguistically isolated and unaware of the available disaster recovery resources.  The lack of information is compounded by the loss of income and livelihoods, resulting in increased hardship and confusion.

The same challenges are faced by the broader community.  In Dulac, Louisiana we spoke with a Native American, French-speaking shrimper who left school after the fifth grade to start shrimping with his father.  Now he waits each day for news of the waterways opening so that he can go out and practice his trade, which he describes as being in his blood.  “It’s frustrating, I just want to work.”

In an effort to address the community needs, we visited government service providers offering individuals assistance with disaster relief loans, employment preparation and training, and food assistance throughout the three states.   We found that Federal agencies wanted to be responsive to all affected communities in the Gulf Coast region but were unclear of the extent of the community needs, and required additional support to get information to limited English speaking communities.

The Administration has taken important steps to providing this support to get information out to these vulnerable communities.  The Deepwater Integrated Services Team and the National Incident Command deployed Community Relations Outreach Teams along the Gulf Coast, with a team specifically focused on addressing language needs and low literacy levels.  We conducted trainings for these highly qualified teams on the importance of outreach, translation, cultural competence and trust when working with Limited English Proficient communities affected by the oil spill.

While we were deployed, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who has made it a priority for oil spill clean-up training materials to be in multiple languages, convened a series of roundtable discussions, including one focused on Vietnamese American workers and community leaders from in Louisiana and Mississippi, to ensure that their health and safety are protected in the clean-up activities.

We know the people are struggling and dealing with serious challenges, and we will continue to reach out to the impacted communities and work hand in hand with the Federal agencies to ensure that the needs are met.   Please find the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders at www.aapi.gov to get updates and learn about ways to get involved.

Miya Saika Chen is the Advisor on Community Engagement and Audrey Buehring is the Advisor on Intergovernmental Affairs in the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

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Violence Against Asian Americans in SF and Oakland Highlight Need for Safer Neighborhoods for All

May 5, 2010

By Titi Liu, Executive Director

Over the past several weeks, hundreds of Asian American residents in San Francisco and Oakland have testified at city hall meetings and participated in community rallies against violence and demanded action be taken to improve safety.  Founded in 1972, the Asian Law Caucus has a long history of speaking out against violence and harassment against Asian Americans, including addressing crimes against Vietnamese residents in San Francisco housing projects in the 1990’s and the targeting of South Asians, Arabs, and Muslims before and after 9/11.  The ALC also has provided know your rights and anti-violence trainings to thousands of youth, parents, and educators.

The ALC applauds the efforts of community members who have worked to draw attention to this important issue.  The ALC also calls for a thorough investigation of each of the incidents against Asian victims that have occurred in the Bayview and in Oakland.  Effective solutions to prevent these incidents from reoccurring can only be developed if the individual causes are investigated and addressed.

In addition, while these cases are being investigated, proactive steps, both short-term and long-term, need to be taken to improve public safety for all residents as acts of violence create fear in the hearts of all community members, African American and Asian American alike.  The San Francisco and Oakland police departments need to strengthen relationships with community members to ensure victims of crime feel safe coming forward and reporting incidents.  This includes, but is not limited to, improving language access services and cultural competency of officers, which is a project the ALC has been working on in San Francisco for the past several years.  The police also need to be clear about what they can do if incidents are reported.  Violence prevention and intervention programs that have been shown to have positive results in both cities need to be fully funded and supported rather than being the first to be targeted for cuts each year.  Structural changes also are needed to preserve and expand safe and affordable housing in these communities for all residents.

We also must be vigilant as communities move forward in working together to create safer neighborhoods to not reinforce stereotypes about one another, but to instead enter this difficult yet important dialogue with an open mind and an open heart.

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Protecting Speech, Preserving Charity: Why the High Court Should Refine “Material Support” Provision

April 5, 2010

This article has been re-posted with permission of the author from http://www.acslaw.org/node/15739

By Sahar Aziz, a civil rights attorney with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Ms. Aziz previously served as a senior policy advisor with the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard argument in Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder. The plaintiffs, a human rights organization and a retired federal judge, sought to teach international human rights law and provide training on nonviolent conflict resolution to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Both organizations are designated as terrorist by the U.S. government.

Oral argument focused on whether such training and advocacy aimed at promoting peace constitutes pure speech protected by the First Amendment, thereby shielding plaintiffs from prosecution under laws that prohibit material support for terrorism. But rather than delve into the complex constitutional questions presented, the Court should follow the established doctrine of constitutional avoidance by interpreting the challenged provisions to require a showing of intent to further illegal activities. The avoidance doctrine dictates that if a case can be resolved on an alternative basis, the court should refrain from ruling on constitutional issues.

In the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, the Supreme Court held in Scales v. United States that laws criminalizing membership in the Communist Party must be interpreted Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by asianlawcaucus

Immigrant Youth Due Process Policy Passes, Implementation Stalled

February 19, 2010

By Angela Chan, Staff Attorney, Juvenile Justice and Education Project, Asian Law Caucus

In July 2008, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom implemented a draconian policy requiring probation officers to report all suspected undocumented youth to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation right after they are arrested.  This means that youth are being reported to ICE even before they are appointed a public defender attorney or receive a hearing on the alleged juvenile charges. 

The Mayor’s overly broad policy has torn many innocent families apart.  Since 2008, over 160 children have been reported to ICE without regard to their innocence or whether they committed a minor first-time offense. In June 2009, The New York Times featured the story of 14-year old Roberto who was reported by San Francisco to ICE for bringing a bb gun (a gift for good grades) to school.  He had no prior record and hurt no one. For Roberto, a teachable moment became a nightmare as he is facing separation from his entire family. Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | civil rights, community organizing, current events, Stand Up Speak Out!, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus

AAPIs Needed for California’s New Redistricting Commission

December 21, 2009

Originally posted on APAs for Progress.

Every ten years, we draw new district maps for Congress, the California legislature, county boards of supervisors, and city councils.  These maps show the boundaries of each district.  When we redraw the maps every ten years, we change the boundaries so that each district contains the same number of people.  This process is called redistricting. Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments | community organizing, current events, Politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus

Fallen Americans, Fallen America: the Response to the Violence at Fort Hood

November 7, 2009

togetherBy Veena Dubal, Staff Attorney, National Security and Civil Rights Program

Yesterday, was a difficult day for me.

I spent the morning “dialoguing” with a former Republican Senator, a conservative law professor, and the director of a non-profit that works against “big government” (among others) on issues of race in America.  We debated everything for an educational television program:  from the use of race in law enforcement to affirmative action.

During the course of this two hour program, I tried to maintain a countenance of civility while listening to a white man deploy narratives of “personal responsibility” while talking about black men and violence.  After abstractly opining on “racism in America” for the taping, I walked back to our offices in Chinatown in the drizzly San Francisco rain and thought about my clients whose lives were plagued by the complexities and intersections of racism and imperialism. Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Politics, Asian Law Caucus Staff, current events, civil rights, Asian American | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus

DREAM for the change we need

September 1, 2009

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Posted by: Christopher Punongbayan

Dear America:

My name is Michael Tsui, and I’m 21 years old. I’m an undocumented student recently transferred to San Jose State University to study Computer Engineering. I want to talk to you about the DREAM Act, but before I do, I want to tell you about my story, about how I came to the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Asian American, current events, Politics, Stand Up Speak Out! | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by cpunongbayan

Whistleblowers: Film Event in NYC!

August 31, 2009

whistleblower

If you are in NYC in mid-September, you must attend this Constitution Day event that is being hosted by the Open Society Institute’s National Security and Human Rights Campaign.  Daniel Ellsberg and John Dean will appear on stage together in New York City on the evening of September 15 for a conversation about the abuse of power by the executive branch in the name of national security.  As courageous Nixon era whistleblowers, Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | current events, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by asianlawcaucus

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