Asian American Leaders Call for a Clean DREAM Act and Other Immigrant Protections

On January 17, 2018, on the steps of City Hall, CPC joined the Asian American Federation (AAF), elected officials, immigrant advocates, and community allies -  Arab American Association of New York, CMP, Council of Peoples Organization, Japanese American Social Services Inc, The Japanese American Association of New York Inc., MinKwon Center for Community Action, The New York Immigration Coalition, and OCA-NY to call on Congress to pass a clean DREAM Act and other immigrant protections before the federal spending bill is enacted on January 19, 2018. 

“We must continue to fight for our families and keep them together” said CPC Chief Policy and Public Affairs Officer, Carlyn Cowen (pictured above), during the rally. The rally was organized by AAF to highlight the importance of immigration for Asian American communities, including the impacts on the pan-Asian community from policies that threaten to keep families apart. The press conference highlighted the critical need for a clean DREAM Act without sacrificing any of the other immigration programs, such as Temporary Protective Status (TPS), the diversity visa program, family-based immigration, refugee protections, and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  There are currently 1.6 million applicants from Asia on the family-sponsored visa waitlist as of November 1, 2017, and Asians accounted for 46% of all family sponsored visas from last year.  In 2016, family-sponsored preference visas accounted for nearly one in four of all new Asian legal permanent resident visas. 

“If we don’t act swiftly on a clean DREAM Act and other key protections for all immigrants, the human impact will be devastating on our communities,” said Wayne Ho, President & CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council. “We serve over 60,000 children and families each year, and programs like DACA and TPS are critical to keeping those communities together. We urge Congress to pass a clean DREAM Act now.”

Click here for more information on CPC's FY18-19 NY State Policy & Advocacy Agenda

To support CPC's mission to promote social and economic empowerment of Chinese American, immigrant and low-income communities click here

_{Photo credit: Asian American Federation (twitter.com/AAFederation)}