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APALA fights back against Trump’s latest attempt to divide immigrant communities and rejects his border wall proposal

1/22/2019

For Immediate Release: January 23, 2019
Contact: apala@apalanet.org

Washington, DC - This past Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, Trump proposed to extend limited protections for some DACA and TPS recipients in exchange for funding a $5.7 billion border wall and more. Officially a month into the government shutdown, Trump continues to pander about an inhumane and illogical border wall, in the meanwhile making disingenuous offers to immigrants and stalling hundreds of thousands of federal government workers from being able to go to work, pay their bills, or get the government resources they need.

President Trump’s proposal includes (1) $5.7 billion for the wall, without any construction plans or evaluations of the environmental damage the wall would inflict, (2) an additional $607 million for enforcement related to the wall that would be funded by new DACA and TPS application fees, (3) dramatic increases to the number of ICE jail beds, border patrol agents, and ICE agents, (4) an asylum ban for all Central American minors, and more. Offering perceived leniency towards one group of immigrants for the hyper surveillance and increased detainment of another group of immigrants is not a real trade.

APALA National President and appointee from the National Education Association Monica Thammarath stated, “The protections he is offering to DACA and TPS recipients are disingenuous. The bill only protects a fraction of all Dreamers and TPS recipients, and still leaves most of these immigrants vulnerable to deportation. Thousands of Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) have DACA or TPS status, and they all deserve permanent solutions that allow them to stay with their families. We will not trade in our brothers and sisters at the border for anything, and especially not for a limited and temporary fix. Despite the president’s divisive tactics, we persist to build solidarity with all immigrants and people of color.”

Today, APALA will join hundreds of others in a direct action to stop the government shutdown. We will occupy the Hart Senate Office building in Washington, DC. at 12PM. Join us if you can. If you cannot make it, amplify the action via following the hashtag #StopTheShutdown on social media and call your Senators.

We call on Senator Mitch McConnell to call the vote in order reopen the government immediately. We demand a deal that includes protections for all immigrants and refugees in our communities. We say “No Shutdown, no wall! America is for all!”

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/.

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APALA fights back against Trump’s latest attempt to divide immigrant communities and rejects his border wall proposal

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

For Immediate Release

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