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?
Immigrant Rights
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.
09-25-2019
On September 24, Working Films will release Stories Beyond Borders, a film series that shares a comprehensive picture of the current day experiences of immigrants and their communities. This project was co-created with National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC), National Domestic Workers Alliance, UndocuBlack Network, and United We Dream.
09-24-2019
DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival) is former President Obama’s executive order that protects roughly 800,000 undocumented youth from deportation and grants them rights to work in the United States to support their families and communities. Even before he came into office, President Trump has been constantly attacking DACA and tried to rescind the program entirely in September 2017, threatening the safety and livelihoods of 800,000 DACA recipients and their families. Nevertheless, the program remained open for the existing DACA recipients due to the enormous support and advocacy from the immigrant community.
09-21-2019
Imagine learning as an adult that you are not a U.S. citizen after believing for your whole life that you were. Imagine getting deported because the process failed you. Many of us know someone who was adopted from another country. Over 500,000 children have been adopted by American families since the end of World War II. But many of our adopted family members, partners, friends, and co-workers did not have their U.S. citizenship secured when they were children.
Tell Congress to SUPPORT the Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2019 by signing THIS PETITION. These signatures will be delivered by Adoptees For Justice, an adoptee-led organization.
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.”