Asian Pacific Americans Rally to Urge Congress to Fix Immigration System 

WASHINGTON — Asian Pacific Americans from Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, New York, Los Angeles and across the country joined more than 200,000 people at the National Mall yesterday to urge Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill Congress this year.

Asian American groups and advocates kicked off the day with a pre-rally event organized by the Asian American Justice Center and NAKASEC. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) were featured speakers. Congressman Honda is the sponsor of the Reuniting Families Act, which contains practical solutions for reducing waiting times for family immigrant visas and promoting the humane and timely reunification of immigrant families.

At the March for America rally, hundreds of AAPIs gathered to hear national and local leaders and immigrants who are most affected by the broken immigration system and the urgent need for reform. Tuyet Le, executive director of the Asian American Institute, an affiliate of AAJC, brought a busload of activists from Chicago to participate in the rally. Le spoke on behalf of AAI and AAJC about the importance of comprehensive immigration reform to the Asian Pacific American community.

“Our family immigration system is broken,” said Le. “For those of us who long for our families, every day is an eternity. We listen to our brothers and sisters grow up, or our parents grow old, over long distance calls. We want our families to be reunited—husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, adult children or parents, gay or straight. We are marching for something bigger than just legislation: we are marching for respect, for dignity and for human rights. We are marching because we are America!"

Other speakers called on the Obama Administration and the Department of Homeland Security to stop harsh tactics, including raids, that separate hard-working families and target immigrants who have committed no crime.

Elmo Siap, a Filipino advocate from Chicago, said he came to the march because the issue "affects me" now. Despite living 10 years in the U.S., his immigration application still hasn't been approved and his wife had to leave the country because her visa ran out. Because Elmo is in the process of obtaining residency in the U.S., if he left now to visit his wife, he'd have to wait 10 years before entering the U.S. again.

"We are trying to get [lawmakers'] attention, we need their attention to the matter and we need a resolution soon because you can't, like in my case, leave people waiting for seven years, and things don't seem to be moving in the right direction. It shouldn't take the lifetime of the individual" to get processed.

Elmo’s experience made him realize that becoming active was the only way to resolve the immigration crisis.

"You need to put your hand in it; you need to put boots on the ground," he said.

Comprehensive immigration reform is a critical issue for Asian Pacific Americans. Nearly 60 percent of the population is foreign-born, approximately 1 in 10 is undocumented. Asian immigrants also face long waits for both temporary and permanent employment-based visas. From the family and employment immigration backlogs; to enforcement mechanisms; to legalization, every aspect of immigration affects the Asian Pacific American community.

Immigration advocates sent a clear message to President Obama and Congress that the time for immigration reform is now. And, over the past week a few positive steps were taken to bring the debate to the congressional floor.

On Thursday, Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled a blueprint for legislation that would offer a path to legal status for an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, and also included provisions for expanded workplace and border enforcement.

President Obama applauded the Schumer-Graham effort and promised to do “everything in [his] power to forge a bipartisan consensus this year.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy stated they are committed to advancing comprehensive immigration reform. 

“The impressive attendance at the rally showed how desperately needed comprehensive immigration reform is,” said Karen K. Narasaki, president and executive director of the Asian American Justice Center. “We hope members of Congress heard the message that our communities will be judging them this November on whether they pass comprehensive immigration reform this year that protects families, secures our borders and upholds American values.”

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The Asian American Justice Center (www.advancingequality.org) is a national organization dedicated to defending and advancing the civil and human rights of Asian Americans. It works closely with three affiliates – the Asian American Institute of Chicago (www.aaichicago.org), the Asian Law Caucus (www.asianlawcaucus.org) in San Francisco and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (www.apalc.org) in Los Angeles – and 102 community partners in 47 cities and 25 states in the country.