APABA Joins Immigration Reform Coalition
May 25, 2006As the immigration reform debate continues to unfold in Congress and the Senate moves to pass an immigration bill by Memorial Day, APABA has joined 38 other Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) organizations in Southern California united behind principles for fair and humane immigration reform and called on Congress to address immigration issues affecting AAPIs. “This unprecedented unity of the diverse AAPI community demonstrates the compelling and personal interest we have in the issue of immigration reform and the importance of speaking out as Congress makes decisions that will affect our families for generations,” said Stewart Kwoh, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.
The Asian American & Pacific Islander Principles for Immigration Reform demand that Congress and the President keep AAPI families together (by providing a path to citizenship for the undocumented, eliminating the backlogs, and stopping the unjust detention and deportation of immigrants and refugees) and protect the rights and liberties of the AAPI community (by protecting the rights of all workers regardless of immigration status, restoring civil liberties and civil rights, and ending the criminalization of immigrants).
Since the passage of anti-immigrant legislation by Congress in 1996 and especially in the aftermath of 9/11, the rollback of civil liberties and civil rights has had a disparate impact upon AAPIs. In addition, ethnic and racial profiling in the name of national security have criminalized communities and destroyed families. “The South Asian community has borne the brunt of recent repressive immigration enforcement tactics and policies, and now the current debate on immigration reform further criminalizes and targets immigrants with even harsher proposals, “ said Hamid Khan, executive director of South Asian Network. “Instead of the current proposals that serve as a smokescreen for enforcement-only policies, the AAPI community demands that every person have the right to due process and fair hearings.”
For more information, visit www.apalc.org
Download the AAPI Principles here.
