As federal immigration attacks continue to support life in Los Angeles, Asian American leaders are bringing together communities to speak up to support Latinos, the main target of enforcement sweep, warning that the next area may come as a frequent visitor to Asian immigrants.
Organizers say many Asian immigrants are already affected by the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants working in the country without documents. Dozens of Southeast Asian immigrants from Orange County, where dozens of Southeast Asian immigrants from Los Angeles and Orange Counties, whose deportation orders have been put on hold indefinitely, have been detained, according to immigration lawyers and advocacy groups.
In recent months, many Cambodians, Laos and Vietnamese migrants who had deportation orders remained have been said to be in effect for decades.
Targeted Asian immigrants are generally those convicted of a crime after their arrival in the United States and are subject to deportation after their release from prison or prison. In most cases, immigrants lived in the United States long enough that their country was no longer recognized as citizens, so the ice never lasted.
“Our community is much more silent, but we are detained in a very high number,” said Connie Chung Joe, CEO of Asian Americans, who advances Southern California Judges. “Unlike Latino communities that want to fight injustice and speak out, our community’s initial response is increasingly hidden.”
On Thursday, half a dozen leaders representing communities in Thailand, Japan and South Asia held a press conference at Little Tokio, urging community members to stand together and condemn the federal lawsuit of being overreached.
President Trump vowed to target violent criminals in January to deport him. But amidst pressure to increase the number of deportations, administrative staff over the past few months have shifted their focus to farm workers, landscapers, street vendors and other workers. Many of them have worked in the country for decades.
An estimated 79% of LA County’s undocumented residents are natives of Mexico and Central America, but Asian immigrants form the second largest group, and according to the Institute for Immigration Policy, they make up 16% of the county without legal approval. Across the United States, Indians form the third largest group of undocumented residents behind Mexicans and Salvadorans.
According to the Pew Research Centre, the Lattropolitan region has the largest population of the US Cambodia, Korean, Indonesian, Filipinos, Thai and Vietnamese people.
So far, Southern California’s most profile raids have focused on Latino neighborhoods, targeting car washes, restaurants, home improvement stores, churches and other areas where undocumented residents gather to work.
Los Angeles City Councilman Isabel Jurado and Little Tokyo Service Center Peter Gee were among the speakers who condemned the ice attack at a press conference on Thursday.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
However, Asian companies were not immune. An assault outside Home Depot in Hollywood took place near Thai town. There, organizers saw ice agents patrol the streets. In late May, Homeland Security agents stormed a nightclub in the Los Angeles area, arresting 36 people who said they were domestic Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants without approval.
In Little Bangladesh, immigration agents have recently detained 16 people outside the grocery store, said Manjusha P. Kulkarni, executive director of the AAPI Equity Alliance, a coalition of over 50 community-based organizations.
“They will come more for us in the next few days and weeks,” Kulkarni said. “So we are only protected when we are in solidarity with our fellow Angelenos.”
From June 1 to 10, at the start of the federal sweep, ICE data shows that 722 people were arrested in the Los Angeles area. The figures were obtained by the Deportation Data Project, a storage for enforcement data for the UC Berkeley Act.
The Times analysis found that 69% of those arrested during that period had no criminal convictions. Almost 48% were Mexican, 16% were from Guatemala and 8% from El Salvador.
Of the 722 individuals detained, 47, or about 6%, came from Asian countries.
“We know the fear is spreading and deep,” said Mike Pon, a Democrat, whose district filmed Monterey Park and West San Gabriel Valley, a region full of Asian immigrant groups.
Los Angeles City Council members Nitia Raman and Isabel Jurado spoke about the impact the attack had on the migrant community. Raman is Indian American and Jurad is Filipino American.
Jurad said undocumented Filipinos make up a significant portion of the local caregivers, caring for older people and young children.
“Their work reflects the deepest values of our community: compassion, service and interdependence,” Jurad said. “Their work is essential and their humanity must be respected.”
Jurad and Raman called on the federal government to end the attack.
“This is a very important moment to speak up and make sure the Latino community doesn’t feel alone,” Raman said. “I also want to make that clear to everyone who is Asian American. These aren’t just raids on others. They’re raids on us.”
Staff writer Rachel Ulanga contributed to this report.
This article is part of the Times Equity Report initiative funded by the James Irvine Foundation, which examines the challenges faced by low-income workers and efforts to address economic disparities in California.
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