Washington, DC – On Wednesday night, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gave his speech outlining his ten top priorities on immigration reform, including building a wall on the country’s southern border, blocking funding for sanctuary cities, and ending President Obama’s executive orders providing administrative relief to undocumented immigrants. The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA) condemns the repulsive agenda Trump has outlined and continues to stand behind candidates and policies that lift us up as a whole and not divides us further.
 
“Trump’s plan is nonsensical, impractical, and most of all, xenophobic and racist. What we saw on Wednesday night was no different from the same xenophobic, racist, anti-immigrant, classist, white supremacist rhetoric that Trump has been spewing all along,” stated APALA National President Johanna Hester. “Deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants back to their home countries and implementing extreme vetting processes, including ideological testing, is fundamentally un-American, not to mention a waste of taxpayer money.”
 
“If Trump becomes president, he will undoubtedly act more like a dictator who instills fear and paranoia throughout our country,” added APALA Executive Director Gregory A. Cendana. “It really is alarming -- his plans to expand ICE and increase the number of deportation officers will not only encourage racial profiling of communities of color but also boost mass incarceration in prisons and detainment centers which are already increasingly privatized. What he proposes will only contribute further to a broken immigration system and a broken criminal justice system.”
 
“This country was built by and for immigrants – documented and undocumented – and Trump’s speech shows that he just doesn’t get it. He is too quick to belittle and distort the contributions of millions of Americans and overlooks the violence and brutality against our own communities by ordinary citizens, who are documented by the way,” continued Hester. 

APALA stands behind candidates who believe that we are stronger when we lift each other up, not by tearing us apart -- physically or ideologically. We remain committed to combatting the mass criminalization of communities of color and stand strongly against the corporate greed that fuels prisons and immigrant detention centers and imprisons our immigrant kinfolk. We will continue to work for an equitable economy alongside candidates and politicians who believe in leveling the playing field and promote cross racial solidarity and understanding.
 
Cendana stated: “As a nation, we need to start looking at these issues more intersectionally. Immigration affects so many people and communities of color; immigrants contribute millions of dollars to the economy; immigrants have families, children and a base of support here in the U.S. How is building a wall and ripping apart countless numbers of parents from their children a solution to this broken system? What Trump proposes caters to a white supremacist and conservative base, and we cannot – and will not – let votes go that way in November.” 

Washington, DC – Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memo indicating the department would end the use of private prisons on the federal level. The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA) recognizes that the DOJ’s decision is a step in the right direction. However, we continue to urge the discontinuation of private prison use at the federal level in regards to immigration detention centers in addition to operation of private prisons at the state and county levels.

APALA National President Johanna Hester commented: “Yes, the DOJ decision is in fact a historic decision that shows some progress in criminal justice reform, and the 40,000 lives affected in those 13 prisons will hopefully improve for the better. Still, the private prison industry has larger customers than the Justice Department.”

Today’s announcement will not affect state and county prisons nor does it affect immigrant detention centers throughout the U.S. In 2015, private corporations operated 62% of immigration detention beds of the 250 detention centers throughout the U.S., compared to the 11% that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) operated.

Hester added: “The increasingly disproportionate corporate operation of detention center beds speaks to how much influence the private prison industry has over the mass criminalization of immigrant communities. The DHS and state and county governments absolutely need to follow the Justice Department’s lead in ending private prisons.”

“The private prison industry is exactly what we call it – an industry. It’s a business model that profits from locking up human beings for years on end in appalling living conditions. The private prison industry doesn’t care for the human dignity nor the genuine rehabilitation of its inmates – it only cares about filling beds to maximize profits,” stated APALA Executive Director Gregory A. Cendana. “While we welcome the DOJ’s decision, we know there is more work that has and must be done."
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In the 1990s, the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) prison population boomed by 250%. Even today, many formerly incarcerated AAPIs face deportation orders and detention centers when finishing their sentences. APALA remains dedicated to disrupting this school-to-prison-to-deportation pipeline and urges governments to divest from corporations which continue to profit from the mass incarceration of communities of color and immigrant communities. Read the AAPIs Behind Bars report that APALA co-authored here: bit.ly/AAPIsBehindBars

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Washington, DC – Earlier this week, all charges related to the 2015 detainment and death of Freddie Gray against the three remaining officers were dropped. The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA) is disappointed in the prosecutors’ decision to drop all charges and demands justice and accountability for all Black lives.

“It’s extremely unfortunate that the prosecutors dropped all charges in this case,” stated APALA National President Johanna Hester. “However, what we’ve witnessed already in this case – the acquittal of three police officers of any and all charges – shows how broken our criminal justice system is. Without substantive reforms in the system and a cultural shift in how people perceive Black folks, we can’t move towards any type of racial justice.”

Earlier this year, Baltimore Police Officers Brian Rice, Edward Nero, and Caesar Goodson, Jr. were all acquitted of charges in their involvement in the case. The lack of justice and accountability for Black deaths remains all too recent with the July murders of Delrawn Small, Alton Sterling, and Philando Castile.

“Blacks folks have every right to be angry at the state-sanctioned targeting of their bodies. Freddie Gray. Alton Sterling. Sandra Bland. Eric Garner. The list goes on and on,” added APALA Executive Director Gregory A. Cendana. “We can’t – we refuse – to normalize Black deaths. I echo my disappointment with the recent news of prosecutors dropping all charges. But it’s sad to say that had those gone to trial, the result would have been the same. Without Black liberation, none of us can be free. That’s something we need to remember.”
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APALA stands firmly with #BlackLivesMatter and the Movement for Black Lives and calls for all Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to join us in organizing for Black liberation.

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