AP(Eye): A week of action
Published: August 11, 2017

AP(Eye) on the Hill is our weekly highlight of significant federal updates, particularly those that impact AAPI communities regarding reproductive, immigration, and economic justice. Learn about NAPAWF’s and other national AAPI groups’ federal policy work while you’re out on the ground!

Policy Recap

  • Affirmative Action and twitter town hall

  • Third #ReleaseMN8 Member Released from Detention

#NotYourWedge
AAPI’s respond to Justice Department’s anti-affirmative action agenda

Source: Reappropriate.co

Last week, the New York Times reported that it would investigate “race-based discrimination” due to affirmative action in college admissions, referring to cases of discrimination against Asian Americans in Harvard University’s admissions. Research has shown that 64% of Asian Americans support affirmative action, but the administration is highlighting cases of a few AAPIs to advance an anti-affirmative action agenda. On Tuesday evening, AAPI advocacy groups took to twitter and social media to respond, using the hashtag #NotYourWedge.

  • View tweets of #NotYourWedge here

  • Read the archive of tweets from the panelists of the #NotYourWedge town hall

  • Read these op-eds on AAPIs and anti-affirmative action policies

  • Learn about the history of affirmative action law and why the DOJ investigation matters at Vox.

Third #ReleaseMN8 Member Released from Detention

Photo Source: 18 Million Rising

On Tuesday, an immigration judge issued deportation relief for a third member of the eight Cambodian Americans in Minnesota detained by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Sameth Nhean, like many refugees from Cambodia, was born in a Thai refugee camp when his family fled the Cambodian Khmer Rouge before moving to the U.S. at a young age. Due to the 1996 Immigration laws that have enabled widespread detention and deportation, Sameth Nhean was detained for a crime committed fifteen years ago and for which he had already served his time. Nevertheless, the Department of Homeland Security issued orders for him to be deported to Cambodia, where Nhean has never even been. An immigration judge on Tuesday granted Nhean a waiver that canceled his deportation after a year of being detained and separated from his family. However, the Trump administration plans to appeal the decision. Detentions of Southeast Asians not only put detainees--who are mostly male--through an unjust immigration system, they also cause immense trauma to the spouses of detainees, tear families apart, and devastatingly impact the economic security of families.


Keep an eye out for...