Immigration Reform Coalition Vows to Keep Fighting to Reunite Families

By Jennie L. Ilustre

Washington, D.C.–Asian American advocates and families, in a coalition with Latin American and African American labor, civil rights and multi-faith leaders across the country, vowed to keep fighting for family reunification visas at a highly-energized rally held on June 5 at the Capitol (Congress).

“If you are for justice, make some noise,” said African American national civil and human rights leader Wade Henderson. The noise was more like music, a concert of songs, chants, drum rolls and impassioned speeches.

Those present relayed their message to the nation’s lawmakers and policymakers in one voice. “America needs united immigrant families for a stronger economy,” said Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) Executive Director Gregory Cendana.

“Watch out, we are involved,” they chorused. This was a reminder of their crucial collective voter power in last year’s elections. It was also in reference to the 2014 mid-term elections of senators and congressmen and congresswomen, as well as the 2016 presidential elections.

S. 744, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act,” focuses on skills visas, and not the usual family categories.
As crafted by the bipartisan Gang of 8 senators, the bill would end visas for sibling and married adult children. The senators are fending off most amendments, wanting to keep their compromise bill intact.

The bill’s key provisions are border security, employee verification, and the path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented, including an estimated 1.3 million Asian Americans, as well as for those who entered the country as minors without the proper documents.

The bipartisan group plans to have Congress pass the bill this July, and for President Obama to sign it into law by August. But a fight looms with the House of Representatives, with its version of a bill that focuses on tighter border security.

Top Priority

President Obama has made passage of the bill a top priority in his second term. On June 11, he spoke at the White House to a gathering of lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties, advocates, and immigrants who want to achieve the American Dream.

He said: “In recent years, one in four of America’s new small business owners was an immigrant. One in four high-tech startups in America was founded by immigrants. Forty percent of Fortune 500 companies were started by a first-or second-generation American.

“Think about that–almost half of the Fortune 500 companies when they were started were started by first-or second-generation immigrants. So immigration isn’t just part of our national character. It is a driving force in our economy that creates jobs and prosperity for all of our citizens…”

“This bill would modernize the legal immigration system so that, alongside training American workers for the jobs of tomorrow, we’re also attracting the highly skilled entrepreneurs and engineers from around the world who will ultimately grow our economy,” he noted. “And this bill would help make sure that our people don’t have to wait years before their loved ones are able to join them here in America.”

Family Unity

At the rally, International Secretary-Treasurer of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Eliseo Medina said in an interview, “It is not right when families are separated, when they wait to be reunited, sometimes for decades…We Americans are better than that.”

Nearly two-thirds of some 14 million Asian Americans (about four percent of the nation’s total population) are foreign-born. Asian Americans form 40 percent of the total legal immigrant backlog.

In his speech, Medina, “We won’t be silent. We will take action today, tomorrow…until Congress passes true immigration reform.”
“This movement shows the unity of civil and human rights leaders and the minority communities,” Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in an interview.

Asked for the coalition’s plans if Congress does not retain the family reunification visas in the bill this year, he replied: “We will not rest. We’re going to work harder. We are 35 organizations, including Asian groups. Asian American Justice Center, with Mee Moua and her team are doing an excellent job.”

In his remarks, he gave a shout-out in praise of dynamic leader Dae J. Yoon of NAKASEC. NAKASEC is the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium.

Emcee Cat Bao Lee ably kept the pace of the rally, which ended, symbolically, in a picnic of American turkey, ham and chicken sandwiches with Korean kimchi and noodles at noon. She also kept the energy level high, leading in chants to “Keep Families Together!”

Before the rally, advocates and families lobbied 37 members of Congress and their aides. They also delivered letters to all 100 senators from families of 27 states.

A rally also took place on the same day, some 3,000 miles away in L.A. “Asian Americans understand the discrimination, pain and hardships that result from a broken immigration system,” said Stewart Koh, president and executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), vowing to keep up the effort. APALC co-sponsored the national rally.

Sharing Stories

In this capital, APALA’s Cendana stressed: “Legislation should not narrowly define, discriminate or exclude family members from reunification, whether they are a sibling or same-sex partner. We will not stand idly by as fathers, mothers and children are detained or deported…We will not be silenced.”
One of the speakers who shared her story was Lundy Khoy, who has become an immigration activist. Lundy, born in a Thai refugee camp to Cambodia parents, moved to the US with her family at age one.

Currently, as a non-citizen she’s fighting her deportation to Cambodia, a country she has not known all her life, having been raised and educated in America. She said in an interview she attended a party with fellow students doing drugs. She was detained for nine months.

“Because of one mistake I made as a teenager, I may be separated from my family for the rest of my life,” she said, adding she has learned her lesson.
At the rally, her sister Linda stood by her side. Linda, a citizen because she was born in California, has been very supportive of her sister.

The sisters joined others in applauding US Rep. Judy Chu (D, CA), when she declared she would fight for family reunification. “I am a member of the Judiciary Committee,” she stressed, the panel that would take up the bill in the House.

Congresswoman Chu is the Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC). “She’s one of our champions,” said Rev. Norman Fong, one of the speakers who flew in other states. Reverend Fong is the executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center in San Francisco, California.
Leaders also gave a shout-out to CAPAC Chair Chu and other champions: newly-elected US Sen. Mazie Hirono (D, HI), “who made lots and lots of improvements” to the Senate bill with her family reunification amendments, and US Rep. Mike Honda (D, CA).

The audience erupted in cheers and applause when AAJC President and Executive Director Moua pointed out: “We are a nation of immigrant families, and families are the cornerstone of our society–they strengthen the middle class and they strengthen the economy.”

Quotes at Family Rally

Miriam Yeung, Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum: “If you want to get something done, send in the women! Stand with our families. Our stories have the power to make change.”
Robin Puanani Danner, President and CEO of Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement: “As one of the first peoples of this great land that has had to work to be recognized, we know what is possible when an entire community is no longer in the shadows.”

Deepa Iyer, Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT): “Shout Up! We will continue to raise our voices on issues affecting our families: Creating a pathway to legalization, uniting with loved ones, preserving the rights of all workers, and ending harsh enforcement policies.”
Doua Thor, Executive Director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center: “Deportation laws lead to racial profiling, unjust detentions and cruel deportations. We call on Congress to work with us to keep families together and end unjust deportation.”

Dae J. Yoon, Executive Director of the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC): “The call for a real solution to our dysfunctional immigration system can be heard across the country from Latinos and Asian Americans to small businesses to preachers and pastors.”