Today twenty Asian Pacific Islander (API) community organizations, members of the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council (A3PCON) will join with LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis, LA City Councilmember David Ryu, LAUSD Board President Steve Zimmer and LACCD Trustees Mike Eng and Mike Fong to support the important steps that local elected officials are taking in protecting the rights and ensuring due process and fairness for undocumented immigrants. Los Angeles’ diverse immigrant and refugee communities, including undocumented immigrants, face the increasing peril of their families being torn apart by the anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration.
“We need and must continue to support our strong and bold elected officials in upholding our values of inclusion, diversity, and equity by protecting all immigrants and refugees, especially those who are in detention and deportation proceedings,” said Debra Fong, A3PCON’s President. A3PCON remains firmly opposed to Presidential actions blocking Muslims from entering the U.S. or re-creating a Muslim registry.
Immigration is widely seen as only a Latino issue, although APIs are the fastest growing immigrant population with the fastest growing number of undocumented. There are an estimated 130,000 undocumented APIs in Los Angeles County.
“A3PCON strongly backs the LA County Supervisors, Mayor Garcetti, the LA City Council, and local philanthropy in establishing the L.A. Justice Fund to provide $10 million for legal representation in deportation proceedings to ensure due process and fairness for immigrants”. A3PCON Policy Director Masaoka said. “A3PCON credits the Los Angeles Unified School District Board and the Los Angeles Community College Trustees for recognizing the importance of creating safe, inclusive, and equitable learning environments for immigrant students and their families, in part through protecting the privacy of the personal information of their students and their families.”
