|
Asian American
Organizations Condemn Mississippi Raids; Call for Due
Process
Washington,
D.C. – The Asian American Justice Center
(AAJC) and its afiliates – the Asian Pacific American Legal Center
of Los Angeles, Calif., the Asian Law Caucus of San Francisco,
Calif. and the Asian American Institute of Chicago, Ill. – urge the
Department of Homeland Security to stop inhumane raids that seize
workers who contribute to our economy, forcibly separate them from
their spouses and children and then rapidly deport them without a
fair hearing.
“These enforcement
sweeps are de-humanizing and destructive to families and our
economy,” said Tuyet G.
Duong, senior staff attorney at AAJC. “We should be
calling for complete and sensible immigration reform to fix our
broken system instead of wasting resources to gut a local economy
such as Laurel, Miss.”
Recently, several dozen
Southeast Asians were also placed in removal proceedings because of
civil immigration violations in Lowell, Mass. Many of these immigrants had
been residing in the United States peacefully
for almost a decade. Many Immigration and Customs Enforcement
operations in the last few months have targeted both Asian Americans
and Latinos working in the fields of health care, medical
technology, agriprocessing and many other sectors that rely on
immigrant workers.
“It is up to the next
Administration to ensure our immigration laws are carried out in a
humane manner,” added Duong. “Senator John McCain and Senator Barack
Obama both need to condemn immigration enforcement policies which do
not provide a fair hearing for individuals in our
courts.”
# #
#
| 
