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New homeless shelters in Fullerton could be opening soon after the City Council voted to declare a shelter crisis in the city to ease building laws that would hamper shelter construction. Father Dennis Kriz, of St. Phillip Benizi church in Fullerton, helped organize at least 60 people — all dressed in white — to attend the meeting and advocate for the crisis declaration. Kriz helped organize with other local religious leaders in the area. He said many will take shelter if beds were available. “Because most of them would go if they had a place to go,” Kriz said.
Museums are increasingly adding social and political activism to their schedules of events. A panel at the Japanese-American museum in Little Tokyo will take a cross-generational look at the challenges and opportunities Asian American communities face as they continue to grow and engage in political action around causes including the fight against gentrification, organizing immigrant workers and other political campaigns. Eddie Wong, co-founder of Visual Communications, the first Asian Pacific American media organization in the country, will highlight the visual dimensions of protest, and will moderate a conversation with Florante Ibanez, Miya Iwataki, Sandy Maeshiro, Tiffany Do, Frances Huynh, Sophia Cheng, Jonathan Paik, and Sophia Cheng.
A day after pledging that the 2020 census would not ask respondents about their citizenship, Justice Department officials reversed course on Wednesday and said they were hunting for a way to restore the question on orders from President Trump.
The Trump administration said Tuesday that it would be printing forms for the 2020 census without a question asking about citizenship, abandoning its quest to add the query after being blocked last week by the Supreme Court. The decision is a victory for critics who said the question was part of an administration effort to skew the census results in favor of Republicans.
The Supreme Court says it will hear arguments over the legality of the Trump administration’s decision to terminate the Obama-era immigration program. DACA shields certain young migrants brought to the United States illegally from deportation and allows them to receive work permits. The justices announce in an order that they will review three cases on the matter in their next term, beginning in October. A decision is expected by next June, in the thick of the 2020 presidential campaign.
Earlier, we were talking about what happened after Korean American protesters shut down a plan last summer to build a shelter in Koreatown. Some worried those protests made the community look heartless. KPCC’s Josie Huang met one Koreatown resident who tried to do something about it. We’ve been talking about homelessness in Koreatown - its up 79 percent, according to the latest count. And today we look at the role of Korean churches —a big force in a diaspora that’s about two-thirds Christian. Churchgoers were among those protesting a shelter in K-Town, even though many do homeless outreach. One pastor tells KPCC’s Josie Huang there are reasons for the disconnect.
Today, the Supreme Court delayed its decision on whether to add a “citizenship question” to the 2020 Census citing legally inadequate explanations from the lower courts. The decision on whether to add the citizenship question now remains up in the air as the Supreme Court is now waiting for a fuller explanation from the lower courts before moving forward. NAKASEC & Affiliates will be following the Citizenship Question closely and will alert our community of any new developments. Furthermore, we urge AAPIs, immigrants, and communities of color to participate as best as they can in the 2020 Census. We remain committed to our fight for full citizenship for all and an inclusive democracy.
In a surprising ruling, the Supreme Court has just prevented the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census — at least, for now. In January, a New York Judge ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the census violated US law by being “arbitrary and capricious,” since the Trump administration’s stated reasoning for adding the question (to help enforce the Voting Rights Act) was shown at trial to be an after-the-fact rationalization. The decision is surprising because the court’s conservative majority was expected to side with the administration and allow the citizenship question to move forward. But it’s not clear what this does to the timing of the 2020 census — whose forms were supposed to be finalized by Monday.
KRC participated in a national day of actions in Little Tokyo protesting the White House’s plans to use Fort Sill in Oklahoma as a detention center for immigrant children and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention practices.
Homelessness is getting worse in Koreatown, up 79 percent over last year, homeless count data shows. City officials had planned to build a shelter there — part of a campaign to put more beds across the city, not just Skid Row. But backlash to the idea was instant. All this week, we look at what’s happened in the year since. Now we hear from the protesters who protested those who fought against the homeless shelter. KPCC’s Josie Huang reports from Koreatown.