NAKASEC is becoming an increasingly influential player in national immigrant justice worlds. This article traces NAKASEC’s evolving critique of legal recognition as the primary goal of immigrant justice work. Following organizers though a 22-day vigil at the White House, a 1700-mile bike tour, and the creation of a housing collective exclusively for illegalized people, I argue that NAKASEC’s call to “re-define what we mean by winning” speaks to an emergent conceptualization of citizenship outside state inclusion. What does immigrant justice work look like when legalization is not its central goal?
Media Coverage
10-02-2019
The people convincing immigrants to take the 2020 census
PUBLISHED ON OCTOBER 1, 2019OCTOBER 2, 2019
BY SARAH CONWAY, IRENE ROMULO, ALEXIS KWAN, MORGAN LEE, AYANA COCHRAN AND CITY BUREAU
10-02-2019
A federal courtroom up in oakland this morning is the setting for a showdown between immigrant advocates and attorneys for United States government the story now from K pieces seized don't focus on lopez at issue was a proposal by the Trump administration to make it harder for immigrants to settle in this country if they have or are likely to use food housing or other publicly funded benefits it's called public charge rule today 3 separate lawsuits seeking to block it before it goes into effect in two weeks that lays Korean resource center is a plaintiff in one of the suits Jenny son the gr
10-02-2019
Ahead of the November 12 U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments in three consolidated cases regarding President Trump’s unlawful termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, DACA recipients and a broad coalition of immigrants’ rights organizations today launched the Home Is Here campaign to highlight what is at stake for 700,000 DACA recipients, their families (including 256,000 U.S. citizen children), our communities, the economy, and our country if the Court overturns the lower court rulings currently allowing DACA renewals to continue.
10-01-2019
Ahead of the November 12, 2019, U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments in three consolidated cases regarding President Trump's unlawful termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, DACA recipients and a broad coalition of immigrants' rights organizations today launched the Home Is Here campaign to highlight what is at stake for 700,000 DACA recipients, their families (including 256,000 U.S. citizen children), our communities, the economy, and our country if the Court overturns the lower court rulings currently allowing DACA renewals to continue. Becky Belcore, Co-Director of NAKASEC: "Many people are unaware that thousands of Asian Americans are DACA recipients and that this is a core issue within our community. We know that the vast majority of Americans support our young people. It is critical in this moment that all Americans show their support for the DACA program and call on the Supreme Court to rule on the right side of history!"
10-01-2019
An Oakland federal courtroom on Wednesday will be the scene of the latest confrontation between the Trump Administration and its opponents. U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton is scheduled to hear arguments for and against blocking the so-called public charge rule, which was officially released two months ago.
"Just the other day, one of our residents here, in our affordable senior housing, she came down and told me that she had disenrolled from Medi-Cal because she is sponsoring her son [for a green card]," said Jenny Seon, the immigrant rights project director at the Korean Resource Center in Los Angeles. "She's actually a U.S. citizen. I helped her re-enroll because I explained to her that it doesn't apply to her. And she was very convinced that it would affect her son's application."
09-26-2019
About two weeks ago, a group of four DACA recipients rushed the stage at the Democratic presidential debate in Houston, Texas, to interrupt Joe Biden as he was answering a question about immigration reform. "We are DACA recipients," they shouted. "Our lives are at risk!" After a minute, during which all of the assembled presidential candidates looked on silently, local security escorted the protesters out of the event. The protesters were representing the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, a group of Korean-American immigrant rights and service organizations. Worldview's Ashish Valentine talks to a local Korean-American community organizer with the HANA Center, Glo Choi, about the stakes of immigration reform for the Korean-American community and Glo's own story of growing up undocumented.
09-23-2019
Following in the steps of cities ranging from Sioux City, Iowa, to Charleston, South Carolina, Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and First Lady Amy Eshleman have launched the Mayor's Youth Commission—a group of more than 30 students ages 14-19 from throughout the city selected to advise the mayor and her team on issues that impact Chicago's young people. Lightfoot and First Lady Eshleman are chairing the commission and will facilitate the sustainable involvement of youth voice in local government. The inaugural class of Youth Commissioners will be charged with developing a vision and youth-focused agenda for Lightfoot's administration.
09-19-2019
Four beneficiaries of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program giving legal protections for young unauthorized immigrants, interrupted Joe Biden’s closing remarks during the Democratic debate Thursday night with chants of “We are DACA recipients! Our lives are at risk!”
“Hearing that there wasn’t much spoken in the debate about immigration, we felt compelled to speak up and say something,” one of the protesters said. “I personally felt that I had been silenced for so long about my status that I couldn’t be silent anymore. It wasn’t planned. It was more emotional.”
09-18-2019
Korean Americans are the latest immigrant group in the Chicago area to establish a complete count committee to boost participation in next year’s census. Inhe Choi, executive director of the HANA Center, one of the groups leading the census outreach, said Korean Americans face many of the same challenges as other immigrant communities in the Chicago area.