STATEMENT from the Chicago Immigration Working Group upon passage of amendments to the Chicago Welcoming City Ordinance

In today’s session of the City Council, Aldermen passed amendments to Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance. The Chicago Immigration Working Group issued the following statement after the passage: 

Today we celebrate five years of community work. It has been five years of countless meetings with our City Council members, rallies, protests, calls, petitions, and undocumented people sharing their experiences with the Chicago Police. Five years ago, the Chicago Immigration Working Group (CIWG) launched our campaign to amend Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance to remove carve outs that undermined the ordinance’s goal of severing ties between Chicago Police and ICE. Chicago cannot claim to be a sanctuary for all while also categorizing immigrants as either deserving or undeserving, valuable or disposable.  Tired of waiting for then-Mayor Emanuel’s administration to act, in 2017 the CIWG worked with Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa to introduce these amendments in the Chicago City Council.  During the 2019 mayoral elections, then-candidate Lori Lightfoot joined the call to remove the carve-outs.  With today’s vote, we have finally won this victory. 

For too long, immigrants have been subjected by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to the additional punishment of deportation after coming in contact with a racially biased criminal legal system. Immigrants faced the nightmare of simultaneously navigating both the criminal legal system and the immigration system. For five years, the CIWG has worked to end this nightmare and ensure that immigrants have the same protections and rights as all Chicago residents. Today we are happy to see that our collective actions have moved us a step closer to truly being a sanctuary for all. 

Today, our immigrant, Black, and brown communities have won a majority vote of affirmation from City Council. The Welcoming City Ordinance will now ensure that under no circumstance will the Chicago Police or any other city agency obey ICE detainers or warrants or collaborate with ICE on immigration operations. Today the city of Chicago is closer to assuring constitutional protections for everyone regardless of immigration status. We celebrate this victory, and we will continue to fight for safe, thriving communities so that one day we can say that Chicago is a true Sanctuary for All. 

The coalition of organizations involved in the Chicago Immigration Working Group advocating for changes to the Chicago Welcoming City Ordinance includes Access Living, AFIRE Chicago, Arab American Action Network, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago, Beyond Legal Aid, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, Chicago Community and Workers’ Rights, Chicago Jobs with Justice, Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America, Enlace Chicago, Grassroots Collaborative, HANA Center, The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Latino Union of Chicago, National Immigrant Justice Center, Organized Communities Against Deportations

Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Applauds Presidential Memorandum Countering Anti-Asian Racism

Washington, DC —On racial equity day, President Biden issued a presidential memorandum acknowledging the harm caused by harassment and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and condemning anti-Asian bias and discrimination. This memorandum directs the Department of Health and Human Services and the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force to issue guidance on cultural competency, language access, and sensitivity in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring that federal agencies avoid discriminatory language. The memorandum also directs the Department of Justice to engage with AAPI communities on issues related to hate crimes, hate incidents, and harassment.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an affiliation of five independent Asian American civil rights organizations, releases the following statement:

“We applaud the Biden-Harris administration for recognizing that our communities have suffered disproportionately from the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, political leaders including the former President and current members of Congress have repeatedly used racist rhetoric such as the “China virus,” “China plague,” and “kung flu” when referring to COVID-19, which has stoked xenophobia and led to increased racism and discrimination against Asian Americans who are being wrongly blamed for COVID-19.

The Asian American and Pacific Islander community has been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and faced higher rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths than white Americans. Many of our community members are working as frontline essential workers to keep our country safe and our economy in motion, and yet at the same time, Asian Americans are being targeted by hate incidents at unprecedented levels.

Racist and xenophobic language should have no place in our government documents or policy. It should have no place in our society at all. The presidential memorandum, announced today, will begin the process of accountability that we need to address the anti-Asian racism and xenophobia our communities have suffered during COVID-19, as well as the deep structural racism that has manifested itself throughout U.S. history.

The Biden-Harris Administration took note of our campaign to identify anti-Asian hate as a priority issue and to examine how the federal government collects data and addresses the hate incidents, hate crimes, and harassment our community is experiencing. While it is important to recognize the rise in these incidents and collect data in a robust manner, we must also prioritize community-centered solutions, including restorative justice approaches to hate violence.

This COVID-19 memorandum is a first step in what we believe will be a longer road to stopping racist attacks against our community and building toward greater equity and we look forward to working with the Biden Administration to ensure the best outcomes for our communities.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice will continue to push for more work to be done to ensure the concerns and experiences of our communities are actively incorporated into this administration’s race and equity priorities and to reverse the consequences of hatred endured by communities of color.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice will continue to amplify and address this hatred by tracking reports of racist incidents on StandAgainstHatred.org where victims and witnesses can tell their stories, find legal assistance, and resources. (more…)

Asian Americans Advancing Justice Lauds Inauguration Day Actions on Immigration by New Biden Administration and Calls for a Comprehensive Moratorium on Deportations

Washington, DC — January 21, 2021 — After tireless advocacy of immigrant communities and advocates, President Biden fulfilled several campaign promises by sending an immigration bill to Congress and issuing executive orders and memoranda on immigration-related actions. The immigration bill provides a path to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants and includes the Reuniting Families Act to modernize our immigration system and the No Ban Act — both priority bills for Asian Americans Advancing Justice and authored by Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair, Rep. Judy Chu.

The executive orders include rescinding the Muslim and African Bans, a reinstatement of the DACA program a repeal of the previous administration’s interior enforcement executive order, a 100-day pause on most deportations, and an extension of protections for Liberians. What is missing in the executive actions is needed relief for the 15,000 Southeast Asian refugees with final orders of removal. 

Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an affiliation of five independent Asian American civil rights organizations, releases the following statement:

This year’s Inauguration Day is historic in many ways. We congratulate and celebrate the 46th President Joseph R. Biden and the first woman, Asian American, and Black Vice President in U.S. history, Kamala Harris. 

Advancing Justice applauds President Biden’s swift actions on immigration, which begin to undo the white supremacist and xenophobic policies of the former administration. The announcement is a significant step toward healing the damage of the Trump Administration’s cruel and unjust immigration policy. 

But our immigrant communities need more than a return to the status quo. We are calling on the Biden Administration to issue a comprehensive moratorium on deportations, including for our incarcerated communities, an end to immigrant detention, and a fairer, more humane system. 

The bill provides much-needed relief for our communities, which no longer have to live under the discriminatory Muslim Ban or the threat of DACA termination. President Biden’s bold immigration legislation aims to provide a path to citizenship for  undocumented people, offering relief to our loved ones, neighbors, and allies, including the workers who have been in essential jobs long before the pandemic highlighted how essential they truly are to our communities and to our country. It’s time for Congress to pass legislation that creates a roadmap to citizenship for every immigrant who calls this country home – without tradeoffs on enforcement or family sponsorship. (more…)

Asian Americans Advancing Justice Denounces Today’s Assault on Democracy and
Calls for Removal of President Trump

Washington, DC — January 6, 2021 — The world has watched in horror as Trump terrorists, rioters, and seditionists stormed the U.S. Capitol incited by President Trump, who earlier in the day urged his ardent supporters to walk to the Capitol Building and «show strength» and «fight.»

Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an affiliation of five independent Asian American civil rights organizations, releases the following statement:

“Today we witnessed nothing short of a terrorist attack on a sacred U.S. institution and our democracy. White power and white supremacy were on full display today.

When Congress resumes its proceedings tonight, they must certify the electoral vote, hold the Trump enablers responsible for their reckless actions today, and proceed to remove Donald J. Trump from the Office of the President – not in two weeks – now.

Trump’s actions in continuing to incite violence and peddle fiction are un-democratic and un-presidential. The politicians who have and continue to encourage this chaos are not upholding their oath of office or acting in the best interest of the people who spoke clearly and loudly on November 3rd and again in the Georgia Senate runoff races.

In the fight for Democracy, we are on the right side of history. The will of the people shall prevail.”

(more…)