Would Be First Asian Pacific American Article III Judge In San Francisco

BE A PART OF HISTORY! Please send a letter in support of NAPABA Trailblazer Recipient Magistrate Judge Edward M. Chen, who has been nominated by President Obama to serve as a federal district court judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

It just takes 15 seconds to send Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a letter in support of Judge Chen through an online form at http://fairjudges.net. This website is sponsored by the Asian Pacific Bar of California (ABC), and is a joint collaboration between ABC, NAPABA, and the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC).

Judge Chen was nominated by President Obama on August 6, 2009. Although Judge Chen’s nine-year judicial record has been uniformly praised by bar associations, law enforcement, defense attorneys, Republicans and Democrats, Judge Chen has been unfairly criticized based on out-of-context statements. Judge Chen was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in October 2009, but he did not receive a full Senate vote before the end of 2009. Thus, his nomination was returned to the President on December 24, 2009. President Obama renominated Judge Chen on January 20, 2009.

NAPABA’s Judiciary Committee has been working closely with leaders in both the Democratic and Republican Parties, along with AAJC and NAPABA’s Bay Area affiliates, to ensure that Judge Chen receives a prompt up-or-down vote in the Senate.

If confirmed, Judge Chen would be the first Asian Pacific American to serve as an Article III judge in the 160-year history of the San Francisco federal district court – a shocking statistic given the demographics of the Bay Area. You can help make that happen by sending a letter to Majority Leader Reid by completing the short online form at http://fairjudges.net. Your letter will be sent at no expense to you.

For further information about Judge Chen’s nomination or NAPABA’s support of Asian Pacific Americans for the federal judiciary, please contact NAPABA’s Judiciary Committee Co-Chairs: Wendy Y.C. Chang, wchang@hinshawlaw.com; or John C. Yang, jyang@wileyrein.com.

Ed. note: The below is a repost of Asian Americans’ Stake in Reform” originally written by AAAF Honorary Board Member, Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), Chair of the Congressional APA Caucus, DNC Vice-Chair and Member of the House Appropriations Committee.

When it comes to the issue of immigration, what quickly comes to American minds? Given that reporters repeatedly write about immigrants crossing the Mexican-U.S. border, the likely response: Hispanics. This focus, unfortunately, has devolved into deleterious scapegoating of immigrants from Central and South America. This is hardly a fair burden for Hispanics to carry, as immigration realities are much more diverse.

Reform will affect millions who emigrated from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, who come with a shared struggle, shared dreams and shared abilities to contribute to this country. Standing side by side, Hispanics are diverse minority groups who will be equally impacted by immigration reform, including Asian and Pacific Islanders (APIs). As chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and as a Japanese-American born to migrant workers, I know firsthand the frustration felt by API immigrants. Our stake in the immigration debate is substantial, our concerns unique, the reasons many.

The first two reasons have to do with proportionality. Among our country’s 12 million undocumented immigrants, APIs are disproportionately represented, accounting for 12 percent — or 1.5 million — of all undocumented immigrants, despite the fact that APIs comprise only 5 percent of the population in the United States. Second, what is often ignored and equally disconcerting is that APIs sponsor 39 percent of all family-based immigrants, and nearly half of the family members in visa backlogs are relatives of APIs (which is why I authored Reuniting Families Act legislation to address unreasonably long waits). In both cases, APIs proportionally lead all minority groups despite trailing population percentages by 10 points, with Hispanics at 15 percent and African Americans at 14 percent.

Why the disproportionate numbers? Hard to know exactly, but with Asia accounting for six out of the top ten countries facing family immigration backlogs — the Philippines in the second-highest rank, China in fourth, India in fifth, Vietnam in sixth, Bangladesh in seventh, and Pakistan in tenth — we may find the answer. These rankings reflect emigration trends from the world’s most populous nations (India and China), as well as the consequences of congressional legislation which specifically allowed Filipino, Chinese and Indian people to become U.S. citizens, reversing decades of discrimination and spurring an influx of applications from these countries. This legislation may also explain why nearly two-thirds of all Asian and Pacific Islanders are foreign-born. The reversing of decades of discrimination meant that the emptying of Asia’s immigration queue happened quickly and within the last few decades, which may help explain the sluggishness in media reporting.

The story does not stop there. Another reason why APIs are primary players in immigration reform is that Asian countries are among the biggest recipients of remittance monies, much of which is channeled by American-based immigrants sending money home to families. India ranks highest in receipts, with remittances totaling $27 billion, followed immediately by China in second with $25.7 billion and the Philippines in fourth with $17 billion. Again, this reflects earlier points about these three countries ranking highest in terms of numbers of backlogged visa applications.

Asian nations are also the top recipients of America’s H-1B foreign worker visa and the accompanying H-4 visa, both of which are necessary for our technology workforce. A recent survey by Duke University shows that the largest group of immigrant non-citizen tech inventors was Chinese, with Indians second. Indians have founded more engineering and technology companies in the U.S. in the past decade than immigrants from the U.K., China, Taiwan and Japan combined. This should not belie that fact that many APIs also still struggle in low-skilled labor. In my Silicon Valley, which maintains the highest percentage of APIs of any congressional district, API ethnic subgroups struggle to graduate 50 percent of their young males from high school.

Other immigration-related obstacles seem uniquely Asian. The South Asian community bore the brunt of repressive immigration enforcement tactics and policies in the aftermath of 9/11. Sweeping detentions, deportations and lack of access to fair hearings were not uncommon experiences for South Asian immigrants. Additionally, among many API immigrant groups, integration into American society is uniquely difficult given language barriers. Ninety percent of Cambodians, Hmong, Laotians and Vietnamese do not speak English at home, with 79 percent of Asians speaking a language other than English at home. Lastly, API veterans — specifically Filipino veterans who fought for America in World War II — are uniquely burdened among immigrant groups as the veterans’ children continue to face decades-long waits for visas.

I say this as we approach comprehensive immigration reform, which if successfully embraced will add $1.5 trillion to our GDP over the next 10 years, according to a recent UCLA report. It is the approach I am most concerned about. For comprehensive immigration reform to be successful it must be inclusive, for we are in it together — no matter from which country we hail.

- Mike Honda

Ed. Note: The below is from our friends at the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

February 03, 2010

Contact: Gloria Chan

For Immediate Release

Phone: (202) 302.8606

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA) issued the following statement on the State of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community:

"As people across the country reflect upon the President’s State of the Union address delivered last week, Asian Americans and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities also are looking back at our accomplishments and ahead for what needs to still be done.  At a time where we must put Americans back to work and fight to eliminate healthcare disparities, we must continue to work together to ensure that AAPIs are not left out of policy decisions.  

“AAPIs are the fastest growing and most diverse racial group in the United States. We have made tremendous economic, political, and social contributions to our nation.

“This Congress, the first Vietnamese American, Rep. Joseph ‘Anh’ Cao, and the first Chinese American woman, Rep. Judy Chu, were elected to office. Both Reps. Cao and Chu joined the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), which has grown to a caucus of 30 members.

“Additionally, CAPAC has worked closely with the Obama Administration to ensure diversity throughout the federal government, including cabinet level appointments and judgeships. Great strides have been made to improve the visibility of AAPIs across the nation. Looking forward, there are still great needs within the community that needs attention.

White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

“This year marks the tenth anniversary of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, which was established by President Clinton to improve the quality of life in underserved AAPI communities through increased participation in federal programs.

“CAPAC members are pleased with President Obama’s executive order to reestablish the Initiative with the broad mission of ensuring that all federal agencies are addressing the needs of underserved AAPI communities. President Obama once again displays his leadership and his commitment to giving voice to our community in his administration. We look forward to working closely with the Initiative to ensure that the policy priorities of our communities are addressed at the federal level.

Economy

“This recession has produced immense hardships for families across the country, particularly intensifying problems for many minority households. Minority businesses make substantial contributions to the US economy, potentially able to generate $2.5 trillion in gross receipts.

“According to the Minority Business Development Agency, Asians have the highest rate of business ownership among all minorities, but are most likely to use personal family savings to start or expand their business. The current economic crisis and tightening of credit markets will pose sever challenges for minority businesses to meet their potential of creating 16.1 million jobs. These jobs are important to help lift families out of poverty and into economic sustainability, yet it has been shown that minority owned firms are less likely to receive loans, more likely to be denied loans, and more likely to pay higher interest rates when compared to their non-minority counterparts. If the U.S. wants to remain competitive and innovative globally, then minority businesses, particularly Asian businesses must receive adequate resources and equitable access to credit.

“Across the board, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders also saw the unemployment rate double during the recession. Asian Americans aged 25-54 had unemployment rates increased to 11.3 percent. Despite these startling numbers, there is still a tendency to lump all of those in our communities into one category. Limited disaggregated data masks diversity within our community making it difficult to gauge the effects of the recession on our distinct ethnic communities.

“In addition, the fastest growing groups of homebuyers are immigrants and minorities, yet Asian homeownership rate suffered the steepest decline among minority groups. While AAPIs have made significant advances in homeownership, much of this equality has been reduced with the current housing crisis. Loss of equity, usage of subprime loans, language accessibility all attribute to the unstable homeownership environment for AAPIs.

“CAPAC will continue to work with the Obama Administration and with our colleagues in Congress to ensure that our voices will be heard in upcoming debates.

Healthcare

“Despite the dramatic achievements in health and health care over the past century, disparities in insurance coverage, access to health care, and quality of care continue to exist in many communities. Many AAPI communities are linguistically and culturally isolated leaving the provision of quality healthcare a challenge. The increasing diversity within our communities and throughout our nation brings both opportunities and challenges for health care providers, health care systems, and policy makers to address these disparities. Furthermore, there is a lack of data collection on AAPI ethnic subpopulations that leaves unnoticed many healthcare disparities within our communities. Facilitating the collection of useful and accurate data on our communities will remain a top priority for the caucus.

“CAPAC Members will continue to work closely with our colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), and the Congressional Native American Caucus, as well as with the Obama Administration, to eliminate health disparities throughout our country.

Immigration

“CAPAC also strongly supports the passage of comprehensive immigration reform. Fixing our broken immigration system, and ensuring that the AAPI community has a seat at the table remain a top priority. In particular, caucus members support: Ensuring a robust family reunification system, earned legalization for undocumented workers and DREAM Act students, the restoration of due process and judicial review in our immigration system, humane treatment of immigration detainees, and the integration of new American communities.

“There is much at stake in our communities with respect to comprehensive immigration reform. 1.5 million Asian immigrants are undocumented. This is 12% of the 12 million undocumented population which is disproportionately large to our 5% population in the U.S.

“In addition to an earned pathway to legalization, CAPAC strongly supports family reunification as a top immigration priority. Ninety percent of legal immigration from Asia is family-based, and six out of the top ten countries facing family immigration backlogs are Asian nations, namely, the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

“Our caucus is committed to the passage of comprehensive immigration reform that would strengthen all of our diverse communities.

Education

“At a time when America is focused on restoring our economic prosperity, we cannot afford to let our workforce fall further behind. We need to equip our students with the skills and schooling necessary to be successful. Asian Americans have long struggled with the stereotype of being a “model minority,” implying that Asian Americans have successfully overcome obstacles. While Asian Americans are over represented in the top scores, they are also over represented in the bottom scores. Consider that among Southeast Asians adults, 59.6 percent of Hmong, 53.3 percent of Cambodian, 49.6 percent of Laotian and 38.1 percent of Vietnamese have not completed high school. This is nearly three times greater than the national average.

“One of CAPAC’s top education priorities has been to support the establishment of the Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) program, a Minority Serving Institutions program provides grants to colleges and universities with significant enrollments of low income and AAPI students to help schools improve and expand their services.

Conclusion

“As Chair of CAPAC, I am hopeful for what lies ahead. In the course of a year, we have made immense progress both on the policy advocacy and education around AAPI issues. There is great potential to advance our policy priorities by continuing our work with our colleagues in the 111th Congress. Moreover, our caucus members are eager to further enhance our partnership with the Obama Administration and the White House Initiative on AAPIs. We will focus on rebuilding our economy and bringing jobs back to our communities and families. We will continue to fight for healthcare and comprehensive immigration reform. We will restore our promise to our students and ensure that our voices are heard in education debates.  As we look forward, please view the caucus as a resource to you on Capitol Hill. There is important work to be done to ensure that the voices of all of our communities are heard.”

Learn more about the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) by following our blog.

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The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) is comprised of Members of Congress of Asian and Pacific Islander descent and members who have a strong dedication to promoting the well-being of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Since 1994, CAPAC has been addressing the needs of the AAPI community in all areas of American life. For more information on CAPAC, please call (202) 225-2631 or visit http://www.honda.house.gov/capac.

Religiously-incited hate speech is on the rise. Examples from abortion, staying moderate on unwinnable issues, not being dragged into a culture war, and the GOP’s racist barbs, but you can find a list here. Endless such examples (and more and more) suggest a devolving rhetoric. But why such outrage? Is it just or manufactured? For whom? Are Nixon’s “politics of mean” not mean enough to move poll numbers? Hate displaces logic, eliminates reconciliation, depresses compromise, debases intellect, and negates goodwill. Politics becomes too easy, accessible, and controllable when simple-minded hate speech is used. With hate, everyone is an armchair pundit, everyone inspired to be a political junkie.

I remind you that outrage makes difficult issues apparently simple enough for anyone to understand. I cite hate speech which any “side” could use in, say, the same-gender marriage issue:

1. They take away our rights.
2. They threaten America.
3. They hate who we are.
4. They’re not America.
5. They’re threatening OUR KIDS.

Everyone’s mad! All so easy, yet, where do such simplistic comments get us in the debate? Do such comments focus on a so-called central part of the issue or do they inflame emotions in a purposeful, intended way? Do such comments make anyone understand the “other” side? Could such comments’ supporters even talk to each other at a dinner table? If not there, then where?

Congress?

“YOU LIE!”

This example from precisely a year ago of conservative hate beyond proper demeanour (so much for conservative principles), reason, and civic discussion. It’s but a bit better today, but do not mistake a tenuous and uneasy truce for anything more.

Months ago, I read “A Gay Marriage Solution: End Marriage? which made me think that religion too often

• promotes unequal treatment, segregating, discriminating, dividing people,
• uses an unproven, impossible-to-prove allure of heaven as collateral to un-gaying (as if it were a choice for most),
• and tolerates government if the government does Christ’s bidding, else, harrass it "tea party" style and defunding it to death, preaching its downfall all the way to heaven

I remind all faiths (even no faith) that government’s purpose is to administrate the nation’s necessary affairs and is neither personal (I emphasize, personal) church nor the liberal eliminator of any principle but free principles. The government is out to neither spread "socialism" (or Communism or whichever logic-nullifying word you choose) nor to target conservatives with public cameras and email nets. Because the government does not loyally obey the church’s stands or a progressive idea does not justify hateful disdain of government altogether. Such a black-and-white logic cannot destroy the very government which aims to protect all Americans’ voices. Civility is gone as we gain easy access to news whose views we prefer, as we talk to others of similar beliefs, as we grow more emotionally invested in our beliefs with age and time.

Perhaps this reminder of civility’s purpose can come only from a mother. Perhaps not even mothers can be politically civil anymore. Do ever angrier words improve public policy, your township, your beliefs, or our nation? I would like to believe that those in politics make a reasoned, responsible exchange of ideas. Let’s hope.

What if you need to hold an election, but are broke and can’t pay for it?  Well, look no further than Hawai’i.

Last month, the Aloha State was thrown off guard when Congressmember Neil Abercrombie announced he’d resign to run for Governor.  The problem?  Hawai’i is broke and had to scramble to find the $1 million for a special election to replace Abercrombie.

So far, two Democrats (Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, former Congressmember Ed Case) and one Republican have thrown their hat in the ring.

Normally, the election would have been held in April (i.e., 70 days after Abercrombie’s Feb. 28 resignation date).  But on top of being broke, Hawai’i currently has no certified voting equipment to run the election.  And to make matters worse, the state’s chief election official recently resigned.

But the story gets even better.  A few days back, the Governor announced she had scrounged up $1.3 million for the election — by uncovering an accounting error (!!).  However, it’s unclear whether the state can use this money (the federal government had given the money so the state could upgrade its voting equipment).

What will happen next?  Will the state find the money to run the election?  And when will it call the election?  Hawai’i holds its party primaries in September.  Not suprisingly, there’s even been some talk about combining the special election with the primary.  Sadly, that seemingly tidy solution suffers from one glaring weakness:  if the election were delayed till the fall, Hawai’i’s 1st Congressional District would be unrepresented in Congress for over half a year!

We’re now taking bets on when this “special” election will take place.  The prize:  Hawaiian coffee or macadamia nuts.

Elections:  the stuff blogs are made of.

– Gautam Dutta

Fill In Your Future!

Join our Census campaign and go to ECAASU for free!

Held every 10 years, the Census is a nationwide head count of every person living in the United States. During the last two censuses, the Census Bureau missed counting millions of people – mostly minorities and low-income communities. Undercounting certain populations may reduce federal funding for hospitals, education, child-care, disaster preparation – as well as fair representation in Congress.

The Youth Census Advocacy Project hopes to tackle the problems of the AAPI undercount by promoting awareness of the Census, while also providing the technical support for students and their families to ensure that they are accurately counted. YCAP is a program of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote.org), a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that encourages and promotes civic participation of AAPI’s. We are also partnered with the East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU.org) National Board.

Why should YOU care about whether or not AAPI’s participate in Census 2010?

1. Census participation is required by law.
2. Census participation determines how federal funding for communities is allocated.
3. Census results determine how you are represented in Congress.
4. Government, businesses and community based organizations use census data to allocate money, resources and services for the community.

We are writing to ask for your help in making sure that Census 2010 gets an accurate count of AAPI’s! You can be an advocate on your campus and to your families!

How can I get involved?

1. Join our campaign at: http://www.apiavote.org/ycap/commit
2. Pledge to fill out the Census (and tell your friends): http://www.apiavote.org/ycap/pledge
3. Follow APIAVote on twitter or facebook
4. http://www.twitter.com/apiavote or http://www.facebook.com/twitter

So, how do you go to ECAASU for free?

1. All you have to do is fill out a scholarship application here: http://www.apiavote.org/ycap/scholarship
2. Hotel accommodations and roundtrip airfare will be provided courtesy of APIAVote and Southwest Airlines.*

This is an excellent opportunity for you to become active in your community and have a say in how the government affects you!

If you would like to learn more about YCAP, please visit our website at: http://www.apiavote.org/ycap.

*All you have to pay is a $70.00 registration fee for the conference.

Link to press release: http://www.apiavote.org/newsroom/press-releases/2010/fill-your-future-join-our-census-campaig


– Alvina Yeh