Press Releases

APALA Demands Omni Air International to Stop Collaborating with ICE in Deportation Efforts

12/14/2018

For Immediate Release: December 14, 2018
Contact: apala@apalanet.org

Washington, DC - Omni Air International, a charter international air service, is contracted to operate the deportation flight of 46 beloved Cambodian community members on December 17, 2018 - the largest deportation flight of Southeast Asian refugees in United States history. Omni has asked pilots who are members of the Airline Professionals Association, Teamsters Local 1224, and flight crew with the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA to staff this deportation flight.

APALA National Executive Board Member and APALA San Francisco Chapter leader Stan Kiino asserts, “It is inhumane to deport our brothers and sisters who have grown up here, worked here, and planted roots here - most of who have never set foot in Cambodia. As AFA, CWA members, we did not enter this profession to separate our AAPI brothers and sisters from their families and communities.”

APALA National President and appointee from the National Education Association Monica Thammarath stated, “These deportations are shameful. Just this past September, Sene Sem, a union brother from Teamsters Local 251, was arrested for deportation after coming home from work in front of his 10-year-old daughter and mother-in-law. Can you imagine? Cambodian workers who have worked their whole lives here in the United States deserve more. We will fight for these families to stay together.”

APALA Minnesota Chapter Founding Member, Minnesota 8 organizer, and AFSCME Local 8 member Jenny Srey adds, “After arriving in the 1980s as infants fleeing genocide, Cambodian American refugees like Sene and my husband and Carpenters Union Local 322 Ched Nin often have never set foot in Cambodia and no longer have surviving family there. It is illogical and unethical and yet the Trump Administration has ramped up their targeted deportation of Cambodian refugees this past year. It is our responsibility to remind the Administration that these communities are a part of the American fabric and to deport them would be to tear apart at the heart of our value for family and community.”
APALA Massachusetts Chapter member, educator, and activist Loan Dao adds, “We are alarmed that the United States is potentially setting a precedent for other nations to follow suit and allow for the deportation of thousands more refugees. The Vietnamese and U.S. governments are in talks to potentially modify the 2008 repatriation agreement. A new agreement might force the Vietnamese government to accept pre-1995 refugees from the Viet Nam War, leaving 8,500 Vietnamese refugees vulnerable to deportation. This past summer, the Administration also used visa sanctions as a way to pressure Laos, the only Southeast Asian country with no repatriation agreement with the United States, to sign a similar repatriation agreement. We must organize to stop these invasive tactics that aim to break up our communities. We stand in solidarity with all refugees.”

We stand with union families and Cambodian American community members to demand Omni Air International to stop the deportations. We call on Omni Air International to stop separating families and remove itself from further collaboration with ICE.

We call on APALA members, AAPI workers, and all those who fight for AAPI working families to show up and take action in solidarity with these Cambodian Americans who are being targeted for deportation.

If you would like to take action against these deportations, please sign this petition, call Omni Air International using the directions below, and amplify this issue by posting the graphics below to encourage your networks on social media to also take action. We need as many people to call as possible!

For Facebook: Graphic- Download

One week before Christmas, 46 Cambodian American families will be permanently separated by the largest deportation flight of Southeast Asian immigrants in US history. The flight will take place aboard an Omni Air International plane chartered by ICE.
Sign this petition: https://action.18mr.org/omni-air-stop-deportation/

Then tell Omni Air to stop separating immigrant families. Call 918-836-5393 and demand a cancellation of the 12/17 flight and an end to the company’s collaboration with ICE. #StopOmni

For Twitter: Graphic- Download

A week before Christmas, 46 Cambodian community members will be torn from their families and deported on an @OmniAir plane. Call Omni at 918-836-5393 and demand a cancellation of this flight and an end to the company’s collaboration with ICE. #StopOmni
Click to Tweet

On 12/17, @OmniAir will carry out the largest deportation of SE Asian immigrants in US history. Omni can stop separating families by canceling this flight and ending its contract with ICE. Sign this petition to #StopOmni: https://action.18mr.org/omni-air-stop-deportation/
Click to Tweet

How @OmniAir can stop separating families before Christmas:
1. Cancel the 12/17 deportation flight to Cambodia
2. End future collaboration with ICE in deporting SE Asian refugees
Sign this (https://action.18mr.org/omni-air-stop-deportation/) and Call 918-836-5393 to end deportation flights. #StopOmni
Click to Tweet

One week before Christmas, an @OmniAir plane chartered by ICE will permanently separate 46 families in the Cambodian American community. Omni can stop this flight and keep families together. Call 918-836-5393 and demand an end to Omni Air’s collaboration with ICE. #StopOmni
Click to Tweet

APALA Joins the “Love Knows No Borders” Action In Solidarity with Immigrants

12/10/2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE: December 10, 2018
Contact: apala@apalanet.org

San Diego, California — Today on International Human Rights Day, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO is proud to have their board members and staff travel to the border in San Diego to join the American Friends Service Committee, faith leaders, and communities across the country to stand in solidarity with all migrants who are seeking refuge in the U.S.

APALA National President Monica Thammarath of the National Education Association stated: “What is happening at the border is unconscionable. The families, children, and individuals traveling from Central America have left their homes to escape poverty, to keep their families safe from violence, to seek a better life in America. But as they approached the border, the militarization and violence they were met with and the blatant attempt to restrict their right to seek asylum could be described as nothing short of cruel and inhumane. Instead of upholding our values of openness and diversity, the actions of the Trump administration continue to demonstrate its blatant anti-immigrant, white supremacist agenda.”

APALA Executive Director Alvina Yeh added: “My own parents came to the U.S. as refugees fleeing the the atrocities and terrors of the Vietnam War, and because of that opportunity, they were able give my brothers and me a life free from violence. Today, APALA is proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder and fight back against the inhumane treatment of workers, families, and children who are seeking asylum. We have a duty not only to demand for the dignity and justice for migrants and all asylum seekers, but also to protect the fabric of our nation from the tyrannical policies we are witnessing from the current administration.”

APALA 2nd Vice President Johanna Puno Hester added: “Every day, migrants are risking everything for the same opportunities our families once had: the chance to thrive, grow, and prosper. We’re fighting for what’s right because love knows no border. Each and every person seeking asylum deserve to be healthy and to live and work in safe communities free from violence, poverty, and prosecution.”

The “Love Knows No Border” action calls for the protection of migrants seeking refuge and sanctuary and rejects the militarization of border communities. For more information, please visit: https://migrantjustice.afsc.org/.

APALA Activates AAPI Voters in the 2018 Midterm Elections

11/8/2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE: November 8, 2018
Contact: apala@apalanet.org

Washington, DC – After weeks of increased intimidation and threats by Trump and other GOP leaders, voter turnout in Tuesday’s 2018 midterm elections shows that our communities will show up en masse to reject an anti-immigrant and anti-worker agenda.

APALA National Executive Director, Alvina Yeh, comments, “Corporate interests continue to spend an unprecedented amount of money to defeat ballot measures that would have benefited our communities and candidates who would have fought for workers. This election shows how important our work continues to be, as we engage with our communities to fight for under-resourced programs and to resist undue corporate influence in our society.”

By organizing our communities, expanding the electorate with first time voters, and getting them to the polls in record numbers, Democrats regained the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives with the addition of 26 seats, including historic wins for progressive women of color candidates in several districts across the country.

APALA’s civic engagement program in the 2018 midterm election cycle focused specifically on door knocking, phone banking, registering voters, and protecting voters at the polls in California, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. In California, big dialysis and landlord associations pushed voters to say no on caps for dialysis fees (Proposition 8) and no to ending rent control limits (Proposition 10) but elected pro-worker candidate Gavin Newsom and other pro-worker candidates into city councils. In Washington, voters said yes to police training and criminal liability in cases of deadly force (Initiative Measure No 940), but no to levying a carbon fee (Initiative Measure No. 1631). In Nevada, our communities successfully lowered barriers to voting by saying yes to automatic voter registration at the DMV (Question 5) and elected Democrat Jacky Rosen to the the U.S. Senate. In Virginia, voters replaced Republican Representative Comstock with Democratic candidate Jennifer Wexton as a clear push back on the Trump agenda. Across the board, early vote and election day turnout was high.

In addition to chapters in targeted areas, APALA chapters and members across the country educated, mobilized, and turned out the vote in Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. With 71% of Asian Americans having never been contacted about elections, our program made major strides in voter contact for our community. APALA chapters alongside their unions, worker centers, and community partners conducted culturally competent voter education at community town halls in Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean. In districts across the nation, APALA was proud to be among the few organizations to reach out to the AAPI community and bridge the wide voter contact gap we’ve typically seen. As union members and workers, our chapter members connected voters to how elections impact our families’ economic well-being and how we can continue fighting for our communities post-election.

Yeh says, “We celebrate our work this election cycle to keep families together, ensure working people earn living wages, guarantee access to health and nutritious foods, create safe environments for LGBTQ folks, provide educational opportunities for our youth, and so much more. We will use this momentum to bring more people along, to grow our movement, and to continue to build people power.”

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Press Releases

APALA Demands Omni Air International to Stop Collaborating with ICE in Deportation Efforts

APALA Joins the “Love Knows No Borders” Action In Solidarity with Immigrants

APALA Activates AAPI Voters in the 2018 Midterm Elections

For Immediate Release

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