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.”

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Advocacy Groups, Community Organizations and Science Associations Urge President-elect Joe Biden to End Justice Department’s “China Initiative”

In a letter to President-elect Biden, groups voice concerns over the racial profiling of Asian Americans and Asian immigrants

Washington, DC — January 5, 2021 — Today, a group of community organizations, advocacy groups, science associations, and individuals sent a letter to President-elect Joe Biden urging the incoming administration to end the Justice Department’s “China Initiative” and take further steps to combat the pervasive racial bias and targeting of Asian American and Asian immigrant scientists, researchers, and students by the federal government. Among the signatories are people who have been directly impacted by the government’s unjust prosecutions of Asian Americans.

The letter, spearheaded by the Asian Americans Advancing Justice affiliation, Brennan Center for Justice, and APA Justice Task Force, denounces the “China Initiative” for discriminatory investigations and prosecutions of Asian Americans and Asian immigrants,  particularly those of Chinese descent working in fields of science. Many of the investigations and prosecutions under this initiative target people with any “nexus to China” rather than on evidence of economic espionage as it purports to do, which has revealed a sharp rise in the profiling and targeting of Asian American and Asian immigrant scientists and researchers.

Even after not finding any evidence of espionage, federal prosecutors are charging many Asian Americans and Asian immigrants with federal crimes based on administrative errors or minor offenses such as failing to disclose information to universities or research institutions and other activities under the pretext of combating economic espionage. As a result, Asian American and Asian immigrant scientists, researchers, and scholars are ensnared by overzealous prosecutions riddled with racial bias that are ruining careers and leaving lives in shambles.

The letter includes a set of recommendations, which first calls for an immediate end to the “China Initiative” and a complete review of all prosecutions and investigations closed prior to prosecution under the initiative. It also urges the incoming administration to review and take measures throughout the Federal Government’s law enforcement, intelligence, and scientific research funding agencies to combat other patterns of racial bias against Asian American and Asian immigrant scientists and federal employees. The letter and list of organizations and individuals that signed on can be found here.

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